Here is, in essence, what I have responded to the DfE KS4
accountability consultation. We urgently need to improve the
situation for languages in schools and it is vital that the
government takes into account specific issues which affect
language learning in the national curriculum, in order to avoid
creating further ‘perverse incentives’ with a negative effect on
language take up. The introduction of a foreign language into
the KS2 curriculum creates 2 interrelated issues which affect
the way in which languages can be used within the accountability
framework at KS4. These are a) whether pupils will be able to
continue with the same language when they move from KS2 to KS3,
and b) the need to encourage a wider range of languages given
that around 95% of language teaching in primary schools is in
either French or Spanish. I argue that schools cannot be held
accountable unless starting points as well as finishing points
are measured and that we need a new graded assessment system for
languages in order to provid