The Language Trends 2019 survey report by Teresa Tinsley provides an annual assessment of language teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools in England. The survey gathered evidence from 776 primary schools and 845 secondary schools, of which 715 were state-funded and 130 independent. The core findings of the previous (2018) report concerned inequity in provision and access to language learning in the secondary sector and stasis and inconsistency in the development of languages as a statutory subject in Key Stage 2. Since then, the Government has re-stated its ambition for 90% of pupils to sit a GCSE in a language by 2025 and has set up a national languages centre and nine school hubs to raise standards of language teaching in secondary schools. This year's survey provides an important opportunity for respondents to reflect on the impact of the new GCSE and A level examinations, designed to be more rigorous and promote higher standards of learning, which were taken by students for the first time in summer 2018. A new Ofsted framework, which will govern all school inspections from September 2019, has also been introduced.
