New data from the Department for Education shows that 1.8 million schoolchildren in England do not speak English as their first language, up from 1.1 million in 2015. Around one in five pupils now use another language at home, with Urdu, Panjabi and Polish among the most common. London remains the most linguistically diverse area, with more than 300 languages spoken and several boroughs where a majority of pupils speak another first language. Newham records the highest proportion at 66%, followed by Harrow and Brent at about 63%. Outside the capital, Leicester (55.8%) and Slough (51.7%) have the highest rates. By contrast, rural areas such as Cornwall and Northumbria report figures below 4%. The data highlights stark contrasts between neighbouring regions, such as Derby (29.9%) and Derbyshire (4.4%). Commentators suggest these trends signal rapid demographic change and warn that English could become a minority home language within decades.
Source: UK cities where half of school kids don’t speak English first at home | UK | News | Express.co.uk
