Modern foreign languages, compulsory at school?

[Userr46372644]

Is learning a language compulsory in mainstream secondary schools? When the child has SEN, quite complex needs, severe learning delays and struggling in basic subjects such as English and maths? Also learning languages is causing a huge deal of distress leading to school refusal. They have an EHCP.

school are reluctant to drop lessons as they don’t have the resources to have him elsewhere.

I just don’t feel it’s beneficial or helpful at this point even more so as the days they have languages we often have to deal with tears and anxiety before school and refusal to get dressed because he’s so anxious. He absolutely hates it!

My son dropped French after the 1st term of year 7. He now has 1 to 1 literacy lessons instead. He has an EHCP but he had to wait until they employed someone for the 1 to 1 sessions. He still does Spanish but I can't see how he will cope as it progresses.

Is the need to be withdrawn from languages in DS’s EHCP? That is the only way to guarantee it and the staffing issue can be covered and funded by that too.

For those types of schools who have to follow the national curriculum languages are compulsory at KS3. For those schools who don’t have to follow the national curriculum they aren’t, but some schools make them compulsory anyway. However, when necessary many schools withdraw pupils with SEN from languages.

DS3 has a personalised timetable, one of the subjects he is withdrawn from is MFL.

I've just come up against this, my son is very academic and doing well in most of his classes - although he struggles with the arts due to his DCD and lack of interest. He is very enthusiastic about History and Geography and currently would also love to do Food Tech for GCSE, he's a great cook, but will likely be made to do a MFL as his third option.
I dropped my MFL before GCSEs in the 80s and I thought it was now compulsory in schools but after a little research found out this is no longer the case. The government no longer make MFL compulsory but they put so much pressure on schools to hit certain targets that the schools insist students take a MFL.
What I can't figure out is whether my son can refuse to take a MFL? What happens if we take the school on on this?
My son's neurodiversity doesn't mean he struggles any more with MFL than most of his other subjects, in fact he does quite well in it, he just doesn't enjoy the subject. To be honest they don't have the best MFL teachers, which doesn't help.
Has anyone else here ever taken a school on on this?

MFL is still compulsory at KS3 for those schools who have to follow the national curriculum.

The only way to guarantee not having to take a MFL is via having it included in an EHCP.

DS could, in theory, refuse to attend MFL lessons, but the school may treat this as a disciplinary matter in the same way they would if DS refused to attend maths lessons, especially if not attending MFL is based on choice rather than because of his disability. A pupil could also attend the lessons but refuse to turn up for the exams.

One of the difficulties you may have is, if your DS is actually quite 'good' at MFLs, the school is probably not going to be keen on him dropping it.

The DfE is very keen on the Ebacc and it's used as a measure of a school's 'success':
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc/english-baccalaureate-ebacc

I'm wondering if it might be worth trying to put together an argument for him to say do both geography and history (some schools say you can only do one due to timetabling issues) instead of a MFL if he's on track to get good grades for both? I would try and find a 'win' for the school in this if possible.

You could maybe argue that the stress and anxiety of being 'made' to take a MFL is going to impact on his ability in all his GCSE subjects.