Pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL) are defined as those who speak a language other than English at home. This definition includes a highly diverse cohort, ranging from multilingual British citizens to recently arrived refugees and migrants. As a result, attainment outcomes within the EAL group vary considerably, driven by differences in English proficiency, prior educational experiences, and the exact point at which a child enters the English school system.
Of particular concern are children who arrive late to the English state school system, who our previous research has shown have much lower attainment than their peers. To understand these attainment gaps further, we focus specifically on late-arriving EAL pupils when measuring gaps at the end of primary school (key stage 2) and secondary school (key stage 4), though we cannot identify this subgroup in reception year or in the 16-19 phase.
We find that pupils who arrive late to the English state school system with EAL fell further behind their peers who speak English as a first language at both key stage 2 and key stage 4 in 2025, for the first time since 2018.
While this appears to be explained by recent changes in the ethnic background of this group at key stage 2, even when we account for this at key stage 4, there is a marked deterioration in GCSE outcomes for late-arriving EAL pupils.
Compositional changes in late-arriving EAL group
Since 2019, there have been significant changes to the ethnic composition of late-arriving EAL groups, following a period where composition remained largely the same year-on-year at both primary and secondary school.
Most notably, there have been increases in the proportion of Chinese and Indian pupils. At the end of primary school, the proportion of late-arriving EAL pupils identified as Chinese rose from 1 per cent in 2019 to a peak of 16 per cent in 2023, before settling at 6 per cent in 2025. Similar trends are visible at the end of secondary school, with the proportion rising from 1 per cent in 2019 to a peak of 10 per cent in 2023 and declining to 4 per cent in 2025.
Concurrently, the proportion of late-arriving EAL Indian pupils has grown steadily over the same period, doubling from 9 to 18 per cent at the end of primary, and rising from 5 to 12 per cent at the end of secondary.
In contrast, the proportion of late-arriving EAL pupils from ‘Any other White background’ has seen a substantial decline. Between 2019 and 2025, this group fell from 35 to 10 per cent at the end of primary school, and from 37 to 12 per cent at the end of secondary school. These declines are likely associated with the end of the EU transition period and the introduction of the new immigration system in 2019, which has led to a drop in EU immigration and a rise in arrivals from non-EU countries.
To understand the impact of these demographic shifts on the EAL attainment gap between 2019 and 2025, we present an adjusted measure that holds the ethnic composition constant at 2019 levels for key stage 2 and key stage 4. This ensures that any remaining changes in the gap reflect changes in educational outcomes within specific ethnic groups, rather than changes in the ethnic composition of late-arriving EAL pupils.
Early years foundation stage
In 2025, almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of pupils at age five were recorded as having English as an Additional Language (EAL). On average, these pupils were 1.4 months behind their peers who spoke English as a first language. This is narrower than the 1.6-month gap observed in 2024, continuing a steady trend of improvement since 2022. Notably, this represents the smallest attainment gap recorded in our time series, which dates to 2013.
