Portuguese is the tenth most widely spoken language (other than English) in English state schools with over 46,000 speakers. Four of the top five are in London are in. However, the largest number of Brazilian Portuguese speakers is in Haringey, which does not make the overall top ten.

The proportion of pupils with English as an additional language in English state schools continues to grow. We do not have similar data for independent schoo, but my work with them and a quick look at their web sites (for example, www.dulwich.org.uk/senior-schoo...) suggests a similar pattern.

Romanian is the sixth most widely spoken language (other than English) in English schools. Where do these pupils live? Many of them are in London, but West Northamptonshire, Birmingham, and Hertfordshire all feature in the top four local authorities for Romanian speaking pupils

Since 2017 the pattern across all English regions, except for London, has been a continuing increase in the proportion of school pupils with English as an additional language.

85% of pupils in Kent schools are recorded as having English as their first language, although only 70% are recorded as being from a White British background. Kent’s recorded multilingual learners speak 221 languages other than English and one of those languages has more than 1000 speakers.

The 2025 school census shows us that over the last 19 years the proportion of pupils who have English as an additional language has dropped sharply in Inner London, but that two outer London boroughs have the largest increases. The urban parts of the NW of England are also seeing big increases.

Polish speakers attending English state schools mostly live outside London. Of the 10 local LAs with the highest numbers of Polish speaking pupils, only one, Ealing, is in London, probably its long-established Polish community dates from the 1940s.

Where you find the concentrations of pupils with English as an additional language? All but two of the local authorities where that figure exceeds 50% are in London.

Where are you least likely to find pupils with English as an additional language in state schools? The simple answer is a long way from London.

Congratulations to Plat Douet Primary School in Jersey on winning a Gold EAL Quality Mark award. As well as its excellent EAL provision, Plat Douet had a secret weapon. I am not a dog lover, but no one could resist the charming school dog called Bear. Details at theealacademy.co.uk/plat-douet-p....

The new list of the widely spoken languages in English state schools shows the top 6 remain unchanged, but Chinese dropping out of the top 10 and replaced by Malayalam. Portuguese has seen from 10th to 8th place with Gujarati and Tamil each dropping one place. Urdu remains top at 178,000 speakers.

Over the last five years GSCE results have fallen for pupils with English as their first language but risen for those with English as an additional language. The size of the attainment gap between the two groups has tripled.

There are currently almost 47000 pupils in English schools whose first language is Portuguese. The 2 with the largest number of speakers are both in London. However, none of the others in the top ten are. For Brazilian Portuguese, Haringey comes out top but does not make the overall top 10.

Over the last 8 years the biggest changes in the % of pupils with EAL have tended to be in Outer London (where you find the two biggest increases) and Inner London (where you find four of the largest decreases).
The figures from 2016-2024 for every LA are at theealacademy.co.uk/resources/

Somali, with almost 40,000 speakers, is the most common African language in English schools, accounting for more pupils than the sixth to tenth most widely spoken African languages do together.