Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many primary schools in England are not teaching a foreign language at Key Stage 2.

All maintained schools are required to follow the national curriculum, which includes teaching any modern or ancient foreign language at key stage 2. Academies are expected to teach a curriculum which is similar in breadth and ambition as the national curriculum.

The department does not collect data on all schools on the teaching of individual subjects in primary schools, and this includes languages. Similarly, Ofsted does not inspect each individual subject in its inspections but would look at whether schools are teaching a broad, balanced, and well-sequenced curriculum.

Any concerns that a maintained school may not be complying with the requirement to teach languages at key stage 2 should, in the first instance, be raised via the school’s complaints procedure. If the complaint is not resolved, then the issue can be escalated to the Department for Education’s school complaints unit.