The Education (National Curriculum) (Modern Foreign Languages) Order 1989
Section 3(2)(b) of the Education Reform Act 1988 provides that a modern foreign language specified in an Order made by the Secretary of State shall be one of the foundation subjects which comprise the National Curriculum. Such a language is to be studied by pupils in the third and fourth key stages, that is to say from the beginning of the school year when the majority of pupils in the class reach the age of twelve until the majority of those pupils cease to be of compulsory school age.