Beyond the statistics: giving children a reason to care about languages

The recently published Language Trends England 2026 report made interesting reading, and its accompanying webinar was thought-provoking, but one statistic stopped me in my tracks: Six in ten primary schools and nearly one in five secondary schools reported having no international engagement at all.

Not just no trips abroad or language assistants. No international engagement of any kind – no partner school, no online link, no cultural institute. Nothing.

I read that line and immediately thought about all the children and young people I've met on our All Abroad! Bus visits to schools and colleges over the past few months. More than one had told their teachers that "languages weren't for them", and yet minutes after stepping into the immersive experiences we'd set up, they were haggling over the price of cheese in French, or interviewing their peers dressed up as characters from a Spanish festival - as if unaware they were doing the very thing they'd insisted they couldn't do. All the while with giggles and enthusiasm louder than any of our ambient sounds!

Nobody measures that. There's no line in a spreadsheet for it. Yet I'd argue it's the moment that all those statistics are trying - and struggling - to reach.

What actually changes something

The Language Trends report highlights important and persistent challenges: declining participation, staffing shortages, regional inequalities, primary to secondary transition, concerns about the future of language learning beyond school and more. These are very real issues, and they deserve serious attention.

But. I wonder if there's another question sitting underneath them all.

Not how do we teach languages better, but, how do we give children a reason to want and to value languages in the first place? I don't think most children reject languages, I just think that many have simply never been given a reason to care.

I've watched Reception-aged children discover - properly discover - that another language even exists. Not as a school subject, but as a fact about the world they simply hadn't known five minutes earlier.

I've had a primary school child tell me, after one of our Spanish market experiences, that it was the best day of his life.

I've watched secondary-school children, who teachers quietly warned me about beforehand, become the ones they couldn't get to stop talking halfway through role-playing as a seller, or tasting something they'd never seen before, asking where it came from and whether they could go there one day.

I've watched multilingual pupils sit up a little straighter because, for once, the language sitting quietly in their back pocket was suddenly the thing everyone else in the room wanted.

And I've watched sixth-formers reconnect with the everyday purpose of language learning. After spending so much time discussing high-level topics, there's something refreshing about ordering food and suddenly, the prospect of studying, working or living abroad feels a little more real.

None of this shows up as data. It shows up as a room full of children who were bored and unconfident ten minutes ago, and now aren't.

Where it starts

I remember when a secondary school invited us in just before GCSE options evening. The following day, the Head of Languages got in touch to say that parents relayed how their children hadn't stopped talking about the experience. Pupils who hadn't planned to choose a language were suddenly looking at the options booklet differently. The MFL corridor, she said, was buzzing.

Now, one visit isn't going to reverse national language trends overnight. And yet, every young person who chooses to carry on with French, Spanish, German - or any other language - starts somewhere.

Sometimes it's a teacher. Sometimes it's a trip. Sometimes it's a conversation. Sometimes it's a song or a series. Sometimes it's simply one experience that makes the subject stop looking like a subject and start becoming about people, places, food, music, travel, possibility.

The doorway, not the destination

People might assume that our VR headset tours are the whole point of what we do, but it isn't. It's the invitation, the thing that persuades a fourteen-year-old to sit still long enough for the real magic to happen.

The atmosphere they didn't expect to experience.

The food they didn't think they'd like.

The object they get to hold and smell.

The market they get to haggle in.

The classmate they end up share the moments with.

The question they ask on the way out - "Could I actually go there one day?"

The technology opens the door, but what children remember is what was on the other side of it: how it felt to be there, and who they were standing next to when they walked through.

The bigger picture

Immersive learning happens to be the way I've chosen to help children discover why languages matter. But the principle reaches far beyond VR, food tasting or role play. Whatever the approach, children and young people need meaningful opportunities to connect languages with real life.

To return to the original statistic that started this piece, The Language Trends England 2026 report tells us that six in ten primary schools and nearly one in five secondary schools currently have no international engagement at all.

For some children, that won't matter. They'll travel with family, meet people from different cultures and hear different languages outside school. But for many others, school is where those horizons begin.

Schools can't do this alone. Families, businesses, universities, cultural organisations and community partners all have a role to play in helping young people see where languages can take them.

The UK's return to Erasmus+ will also create exciting new opportunities for schools and colleges to develop international partnerships and experiences, helping to bring the world a little closer for every learner.

Fundamentally, a child doesn't choose to continue with something they were never given a reason to love in the first place. And whilst we can't manufacture curiosity, we can create the conditions in which it grows, and give young people opportunities that don't have to require a passport.

And that's the part no report can ever fully measure, but it's often where a lifelong interest in languages begins.

Julia Vogado is the founder of All Abroad! Bus, which brings immersive, multi-sensory language and cultural experiences into schools, colleges and communities across the UK. Through VR, food, music, storytelling and authentic cultural encounters, All Abroad! Bus aims to make languages accessible, relevant and inspiring for learners of all ages.