Some 14.4% of primary school pupils spoke a language other than English as their first language in 2008 - a rise of 0.9 percentage points on 2007.
It was 10.5% in 2004, the year before the main European Union expansion, and has almost doubled since 1997.
In secondary schools, the proportion rose from 10.6% to 10.8% over 2007-08.
The latest figures translate to some 470,080 pupils in primary schools and 354,300 pupils in secondary schools whose first language is thought not to be English.
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