To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress his Department has made in reaching its objective that between 50 and 90 per cent. of a school's Key Stage 4 cohort should study a foreign language leading to a recognised qualification. (163296)

We have recently implemented a range of measures recommended by the Languages Review led by Lord Bearing and Lid King, the Department's National Director for Languages, to improve the take up of languages at GCSE. OFSTED have recently amended the self evaluation form to include a section about languages enabling schools to report their progress towards the 50 to 90 per cent. benchmark. We also wrote to School Improvement Partners in July and provided them with a toolkit to help them in their role of support and challenge over languages take-up in schools where appropriate. Two new languages indicators measuring attainment and participation in languages will be included in the Key Stage 4 achievement and attainment tables from 2008.