theguardian.com
Fewer pupils in less affluent English schools taking languages, survey finds
Less than half taking foreign languages GCSEs compared with 69% in most prosperous state schools
Ministers must make access to language learning a national priority, experts have said, after research showed that children from more deprived areas of England are disproportionately denied the chance to learn a foreign tongue.
This year’s Language Trends report by the British Council surveyed 1,000 primary, secondary and independent schools and found that the proportion of pupils studying a modern language GCSE in less affluent English state schools was 38% lower than in the most affluent and 12% lower than the average. Continue reading...
![Comic. [3-column table with headers Period, My Favorite Part, and My Biggest Complaint] [Row 1] P: *Precambrian*, MFP: Life develops, MBC: Snowball Earth episodes [Row 2] P: Cambrian, MFP: Trilobites!, MBC: Evolution could stand to calm down a little [Row 3] P: Ordovician, MFP: Earth might have had rings, MBC: Scary volcanic eruption in North America [Row 4] P: Silurian, MFP: First land animals, MBC: Earth’s newfound mold problem [Row 5] P: Devonian, MFP: Big mountains in Boston, MBC: Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was *armor* [Row 6] P: Carboniferous, MFP: Cool forests, MBC: Bugs too big [Row 7] P: Permian, MFP: Pangea, MBC: Google “The Great Dying” [Row 8] P: Triassic, MFP: Tanystropheus [dinosaur with extremely long neck next to tiny person for scale], MBC: Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan [Row 9] P: Jurassic, MFP: Birds, MBC: Parasitoid wasps [Row 10] P: Cretaceous, MFP: Raptors, MBC: Raptors [Row 11] P: Paleogene, MFP: Pretty horseys!!!, MBC: Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum [Row 12] P: Neogene, MFP: Forests of *Dracaena* Dragonblood Trees, MBC: Zanclean Flood [Row 13] P: Quaternary, MFP: Burrito invented, MBC: Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreifyh56h2dhfnxxuarc6hspobseq6jzurt7mnkuo3dkvlkyrw6e76i)
![In this meme, a young John Connor is talking to the Terminator.
Wait a second, you re saying you're from the future?
Great question! Thanks so much for asking. Let's think about the answer...hmm! The current year is 1983. Working backwards logically. I'm from the year 1965, which is 300 years in the future. Anything else you'd like to know?
[Blank stare]
I'm sorry, I can see that was not the right answer. I actually came from the year 829392 AD, which is 10 years in the past from this year, which is](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qhc5hk27hzotcxv7cehkqvpd/bafkreidzwql5qqyhv26bfqgc2mh46lbkopr5mwf6k3vkbggrijqz3xd4am)
