Equalising opportunity in secondary languages in England: how school policies shape SEND pupils’ access to language learning

In this paper, we look at how selective participation policies can impact the opportunity for SEND pupils to study languages at Key Stage 4 (KS4, ages 14–16). Despite a growing awareness of the prevalence of school-level participation policies – whereby schools make languages compulsory at KS4 for all, or for a select group of pupils – there has been little quantitative research about the impact of these policies on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Drawing on policy enactment theory, we use an in-depth survey with 107 state secondary schools in England to examine and compare the relative proportion of SEND pupils in KS4 languages across three different policy groupings (‘Free choice’, ‘Pathways’ and ‘Compulsory for all’). We found that Compulsory and Pathways policies were associated with significantly higher numbers of pupils studying languages at KS4 overall. However, the Pathways approach was associated with a significantly lower proportion of SEND pupils studying languages than free choice and compulsory for all schools. This study highlights the importance of understanding school-level participation policies as a critical site of policy enactment through which national aspirations for language learning and education inclusion are negotiated in practice.