modern foreign languages

GCSE results 2021: French

Here are the trends in the latest French GCSE results for summer 2021. The proportion of grade 9 results achieved by students in the language, equivalent to a high A* under the old GCSE system, rose to 8.9 per cent, compared to 7.9 per cent in 2020 and 4.5 per cent in 2019. You can […]

GCSE Results 2021: Spanish

Here are the trends in the latest Spanish GCSE results for summer 2021. The proportion of grade 9 results achieved by students in the language, equivalent to a high A* under the old GCSE system, rose to 9.6 per cent, compared to 8.4 per cent in 2020 and 5.7 per cent in 2019. You can […]

Delay ‘risky’ reforms to language GCSEs, MPs and peers tell DfE

The government should delay “risky and untested” reforms to modern foreign language GCSEs, a group of MPs and peers has said. The all-party parliamentary group for modern languages has urged the Department for Education to think again after being “inundated with messages of concern” from across the education sector. In March, the government began consulting […]

Pupils ‘expected to know’ up to 1,700 words under reforms to MFL GCSEs

Pupils will be “expected to know” up to 1,700 different words under proposed reforms to GCSE modern foreign language (MFL) qualifications. The Department for Education has published revised subject content for French, German and Spanish MFL GCSEs alongside a consultation on the changes. Ofqual, the exams regulator, is also consulting on new assessment objectives for […]

GCSEs 2021: Teachers CAN use one-off tests for MFL speaking

Teachers will not be prevented from using “one-off assessment opportunities” to test pupils spoken language in GCSE modern foreign language subjects next year, Ofqual has said. The exams regulator has published its decisions following a consultations on changes to the way MFL GCSEs are to be assessed next year. It is part of a suite […]

6 interesting findings from the Language Trends 2019 report

Take-up of French and German languages has slumped, fewer schools are teaching languages at an early age, and Brexit has been blamed for schools dropping out of international projects. The findings come from the British Council’s Language Trends 2019 report, published today. Here’s your trusty Schools Week round-up. 1. Au revoir French, Hola Spanish […]

A third of state schools allow pupils to opt out of languages in year 9

Over a third of state schools now allow pupils to opt out of studying a language in year 9, a new report has revealed. In fact, 34.5 per cent of state schools are not teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) to entire groups of students at that level, up from 29 per cent in 2017 and […]

Urgent action needed to save MFL from ‘extinction’, claims expert

GCSE entries to modern foreign languages continued to fall this year, in a dropoff that could even see some subjects becoming “extinct” in schools, according to one expert. Overall, MFL entries were down by 7.3 per cent this year at around 300,000 in total, while the drop in the population of 16-year-olds in England sat […]