A new league table celebrates schools with the most extensive language provision Embargo: 00.01am Wednesday, 1 July 2026
The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk ) has compiled a new league table of schools based on official Department for Education performance data on the state of Modern Language provision across England.
The top 10 schools are:
five independent and state Islamic faith schools (such as Madrasatul Imam Muhammad Zakariya in Bolton and Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School in Blackburn, part of Star Academies); two state schools known for a long-standing specialism in languages (Hockerill Anglo-European College in Hertfordshire and the Anglo European School in Essex); two large selective state schools in the south-east (Dartford Grammar School and Bexley Grammar School); and one traditional independent Roman Catholic boarding school for girls (St Mary’s School Ascot).
In 2025, only three schools had twice as many Modern Language GCSE entries as they had Year 11 pupils, meaning each pupil took two language GCSEs (on average). All three are small independent Islamic faith schools, where there is a high take-up of Arabic and Urdu.
Top 10 schools in England for Modern Language provision School or college name Pupils at end-KS4 #Lang GCSEs Number per pupil 1. Madrasatul Imam Muhammad Zakariya 20 40 2.00 2. Bahr Academy 5 10 2.00 3. The Fountain School 4 8 2.00 4. Hockerill Anglo-European College 131 249 1.90 5. Dartford Grammar School 179 331 1.85 6. Noorul Uloom 24 44 1.83 7. Bexley Grammar School 223 406 1.82 8. Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School 124 225 1.81 9. Anglo European School 235 407 1.73 10. St Mary's School Ascot 61 89 1.46
At just 220 secondary schools is the number of Modern Language GCSE entries equal to or greater than the number of pupils reaching the end of Key Stage 4. In other words, at this small minority of schools there is an average of at least one Modern Language GCSE for each pupil. This is around 5% of all secondary schools in England.
The overwhelming majority of England’s secondary schools have scant language provision, at least relative to other mainstream subjects: at most schools, for example, there is under one Modern Language GCSE entry for every two pupils.
The decline in language learning explains the difficulties universities now face in filling their language courses as well as the spate of Modern Language course closures in higher education.
Until 2004, it was compulsory to learn a language at Key Stage 4 (school Years 10 and 11) but a sharp decline followed: since 2004, the number of Modern Language GCSE entries in England has fallen from over half a million to under one-third of a million (and despite some growth in the number of Key Stage 4 pupils over the same period).
While the main table excludes Classical Languages, such as Latin and Ancient Greek, a supplementary table has been compiled that includes these subjects. When they are included alongside Modern Languages, the order of schools changes somewhat – for example, Bexley Grammar School and Dartford Grammar Schools come first and second respectively, with each pupil taking an average of 2.1 GCSEs in Modern or Classical Languages. Including the Ancient Languages also boosts the performance of many traditional independent schools - for example, moving Winchester College (Rishi Sunak’s old school) up into the top 10.
The three attached spreadsheets show:
TABLE 1: schools ranked by the total number of Modern Language GCSE entries; TABLE 2 [MAIN TABLE]: schools ranked by the number of Modern Language GCSE entries per pupil in the relevant cohort; and TABLE 3: schools ranked by the total number of Language GCSEs per pupil, including Classical Languages.
Without a change of course, language learning in schools looks set to continue deteriorating, in part due to recent policy decisions:
Some of the small minority of schools that have offered the International Baccalaureate (IB), which prioritises language learning, to their sixth-formers do notably well in the new league table for GCSEs. But the additional (Large Programme Uplift) funding provided to state schools for the IB qualification is coming to an end. Some high-performing schools, including Bexley Grammar School which appears in the top 10, have announced an intention to move away from the IB this autumn. There are widespread concerns that Keir Starmer's Government ‘are squeezing languages out of the picture ’ as a result of the removal of the EBacc (a school performance measure that includes languages). The publicly-funded Latin Excellence Programme (LEP) , which began in 2022 and benefited 39 schools, ended last year.
Despite the large decline in formal language learning over recent years, there is some clear evidence that people in the UK do want to learn languages and are finding ways to do so beyond formal education. The most recent full HEPI report on the decline in languages, for example, refers to data from Duolingo showing 'the UK ranks second globally for the proportion of learners studying more than one language. And it’s under-22s who are leading the charge, choosing Japanese, Korean and Chinese in increasing numbers.’
Nick Hillman OBE, CEO of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said:
'Schools that have bravely resisted the mainstream trend of reducing language provision tend to get little kudos for it. Yet they deserve enormous praise for voluntarily opting to spend resources on protecting the pipeline of language learners.
‘There has been a catastrophic decline in language learning in the UK over the past 20 years and we need to shine a spotlight on the problem if it is to be arrested and reversed. Yet rather than berating those schools that have responded to the clear incentives deterring language provision, I want to celebrate those that have taken a stand. Without them, the huge pressure to close university language departments would be even greater than it already is.
’Learning a language has enormous benefits for individual learners, but it also has benefits for the whole country. It enables a fuller understanding of different cultures, makes it easier for us to engage with the rest of the world and promotes international trade. Yet when any educational institution cuts or cancels their language provision, it is very hard to bring back afterwards.'
Important notes on the data
All league tables rest on the available data and this new league table is based on trusted official school performance data. However, the data exclude certain qualifications and so schools that do not focus on regular GCSEs perform less well, even though a small minority do in fact have excellent language provision. This mainly – but not entirely – affects independent schools:
Many independent schools teach the IGCSE rather than the GSCE and the IGCSE is excluded from Department for Education performance data. (See additional information, including on Eton College, in the Notes for Editors below.) The main focus of the GCSE league table is on Modern rather than Classical Languages, thereby excluding Latin and Ancient Greek, although a supplementary table with these Classical Languages is provided. A very few state-funded schools do not concentrate on GCSEs. For example, the Europa School in Culham , Oxfordshire, is a bilingual school focusing on the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP). This institution has excellent language provision despite appearing in a low position in the table.
This is the first time HEPI have compiled these data and we are open to feedback on alternative ways to consider the numbers.
