Language Trends 2005 - Key Stage 4
Regional analysis

 

In September 2005, a questionnaire was sent out to a representative random sample of 2,000 secondary schools in England, stratified by LEA, selected from the National Foundation for Educational Research database. 1,577 maintained schools and 423 independent schools were included in proportion with the respective school populations in England.

The sample excluded middle schools deemed secondary, special schools, FE and 6th form colleges. Overall, 1,229 schools responded to the survey, a response rate of 61%.

The regional analysis focuses on the maintained schools sample. A total of 1,016 maintained schools responded to the survey.

Comparisons of our achieved sample of responding schools with the national population of schools have been carried out and the results show that our sample has a very similar profile to that of the whole population of schools in England. Analysis was carried out on school type, gender, region and on educational and social indicators of the school. (See table 2 for the regional comparisons.)

Regional reports are now available for each English region (pdf). Click on your region to download the analysis.

North East ¦ North West ¦ Yorkshire & The Humber ¦ East Midlands ¦ West Midlands ¦ East ¦ London ¦ South East ¦ South West

The following regional tables are presented below to give an overview of the survey sample and status of languages in schools by region:

• Table 1: Response rates to the survey by region
• Table 2: Regional distribution of responding schools compared to all schools in England
• Table 3: Compulsory / optional status of languages by region of school

Table 1: Response rates to the survey by region

Maintained schools only

	Total maintained schools in ISSUED survey sample	Total maintained schools in our ACHIEVED survey sample	Response rate
South West	150	115	77%
North East	78	56	72%
East Midlands	149	107	72%
East of England	171	121	71%
South East	246	156	63%
West Midlands	191	120	63%
Yorkshire & The Humber	149	92	62%
North West	240	142	59%
London	203	107	53%
Total	1577	1016	64%

 

 

Table 2: Regional distribution of responding schools compared to all schools in England

Maintained schools only

	Total maintained schools in our ACHIEVED survey sample	%	Total maintained schools in England	%
North East	56	6%	209	6%
North West	142	14%	476	15%
Yorkshire & The Humber	92	9%	325	10%
East Midlands	107	11%	300	9%
West Midlands	120	12%	414	12%
East of England	121	12%	427	13%
London	107	11%	406	12%
South East	156	15%	503	15%
South West 115 11 325 10	115	11%	325	10%
Total	1016	100%	3385	100%

 

Table 3: Compulsory / optional status of languages by region of school

Maintained schools only

	MFL compulsory %	Base n
South East	37%	156
London	35%	107
East Midlands	25%	107
West Midlands	23%	120
East of England	23%	121
South West	22%	115
Yorkshire & The Humber	21%	92
North East	20%	56
North West	19%	142
Total	25%	1016