The number of secondary schools which arrange their Year 7 intake according to the languages taken at primary level can be counted on the fingers of a leper’s hand.

When these poor lab rabbits arrive with different degrees of proficiency in different languages, they find themselves starting another language from scratch or going over the ground they’ve already covered, and the prospects for modern foreign languages in state secondaries become even bleaker.

Phil Delnon, Supply teacher and former head of MFL, Swanscome, Kent.

See feature, pages 34-36.