Pupils with English as second tongue at 27pc

Children who speak English as a second language now make up almost 27 per cent of pupils in one Black Country borough, according to new Government figures.

In Sandwell schools, 26.9 per cent of children have a different mother tongue, while in Birmingham the figure is 41 per cent of children and in London and Slough more than half of children speak a different first language. Across the country, English is a foreign language to more than one in seven primary youngsters, almost half a million.

In other areas, including Leicester, Luton and Bradford the proportion is approaching 50 per cent.

The figures released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, highlight major demographic changes over the past few decades.

The number of ethnic minority pupils is up 11 per cent from 1997.

Sir Andrew Green, from the Migrationwatch thinktank, said the figures confirm the "huge" impact that immigration is having on society.

He added: "In inner London it is hard to know who immigrant children are supposed to integrate with since they heavily outnumber local children."

Schools in the Black Country are forking out thousands of pounds to pay for interpreters for children who do not speak English.

The schools receive a nominal fee from the Government but the amount of money they receive is worked out per pupil using a formula, meaning that schools with high numbers of pupils coming in from abroad are still having to fork out around £25 an hour for interpreters.

Richard Kentish, head at Cape Primary, Smethwick, has said they have pupils from 18 different nationalities with languages including English, Somali, Urdu, Russian and Albanian and employ bilingual classroom assistants.