The requested information is not held centrally.
As part of the School Census, schools are required to record first language data to identify those pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English; known or believed to be English; or unclassified. This information was published in the Statistical First Release: Schools and Pupils in England, and is provided in the table.
From January 2007, where a pupil's first language is not English, schools were given the option of using the short code list (as presented in the table) or the extended language code set (which consists of over 300 language codes). Not all schools have chosen to use the extended language codes. Therefore the Department does not hold complete data for actual first language.
Pupils of compulsory school age and above Primary schools1 Secondary schools1 Special Schools2 Number of pupils Percentage of pupils4 Number of pupils Percentage of pupils4 Number of pupils Percentage of pupils4 First language is known or believed to be other than English 447,480 13.5 342,240 10.5 8,390 9.9 First language is known or believed to English 2,855,830 86.4 2,924,050 89.5 76,280 90.1 Unclassified5 1,070 0.0 1,860 0.1 20 0.0 Total6 3,304,370 100.0 3,268,160 100.0 84,680 100.0 1 Includes middle schools as deemed. 2 Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes General Hospital Schools. 3 Excludes dually registered pupils. 4 The number of pupils by their first language expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils of compulsory school age and above. 5 Information was not sought or revised. 6 Pupils of compulsory school age and above. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between the sum of constituent items and totals as shown. Source: School Census.