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Cornish schoolchildren have been urged to learn a language as Britain prepares to leave the EU.

Schoolchildren across the South West have the worst record in England for learning foreign languages, the education watchdog Ofsted says in its 2019 schools report.

Across the region only 43% of 16-year-olds were entered for a foreign language at GCSE, Bradley Simmons, the education watchdog’s regional director, said. Nationally the figure was 47%.

Devon had the biggest fall in the numbers learning a foreign language, down eight percentage points, compared with Cornwall (five) and Plymouth (four).

Although the Westcountry is a favourite destination for German fans of the Rosamunde Pilcher TV series, take-up of the German language is declining fastest, Mr Simmons said. French is “teetering”, while Spanish is “holding its own”.

“We are an area that sells itself on tourism, and we need to be able to make ourselves understood in the languages of our nearest neighbours. We are not doing that.

“Part of this is the general English apathy about foreign languages. We have perhaps relied on our ability to get by in English.”

He said schools needed to consider putting their best language teachers in charge of the youngest pupils to give them a good, early grounding.

Mr Simmons said that, with Brexit about to happen, “it’s important, if we are going to sell things abroad, that we can do that in the language of the people we are trying to sell to”.

(Image: Danny Lawson/PA)

Local authority children’s services continue to endure a chronic lack of funding, the Ofsted report said. And the South West was a particular cause for concern, particularly in children’s homes services.

This includes some children being placed a long way from their original homes. About 9% of children were placed 100 or more miles from their original home, and 70 of these children were placed more than 200 miles away.

But Mr Simmons praised Cornwall Council’s children’s services, which were rated Outstanding across the board in the most recent inspection.

Meanwhile, Plymouth schools have bounced back after being ticked off by Ofsted in 2018.

At the time Mr Simmons warned school and political leaders and parents across the city to make more effort.

Secondary schools in Plymouth were the worst-performing in the South West, he said.

But yesterday Mr Simmons praised the way the city had responded.

“I have been very impressed by the way Plymouth acted. I have visited and toured schools with Tracey Lee, the Plymouth City Council chief executive, and feel there’s a real energy.”

Ofsted has adopted a new curriculum-based inspection regime, and one of the first schools to be rated on the tougher new system was Ernesettle Primary.

“They went from Good to Outstanding, and that’s really good news,” Mr Simmons said.

“We are starting to see a family of schools working together, and there is now a real impetus to use resources for the benefit of the children in the city.”

The new inspection system turns the focus away from simple test results.

“Schools need to give a broad and rich curriculum all the way through primary and secondary up to the age of 14, and then a good range of GCSE subjects,” Mr Simmons said.

But, according to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, some schools have begun to “game” the Ofsted inspections.

“We have seen schools requiring almost every child to take a qualification in English for Speakers of Other Languages, even though they were nearly all native English speakers who were also taking English Language and

Literature GCSEs,” she said.

“We’ve seen schools that have been cutting back drastically on all children’s opportunities to discover the joys of languages, art, music, drama and humanities – so that most children have to give them up at age 12 or 13, when they have barely begun to discover what these subjects have to offer.”