In this newsletter we cover
- how EAL pupils in England fare under teacher assessment
- EAL in multilingual Britain in 2021
- the latest additions to the free resources section of our website
- an update on our online courses
- the new course from the makers of LILAC
Welcome to our first newsletter of the new year. Wherever you are in the world we wish you all the best for a healthy and happy 2021.
How do EAL pupils fare under teacher assessment?
We have always been in favour of a degree of teacher assessment in the public exam system, even though we know there are concerns about how teacher bias might affect some groups. The latest data from FFT Education Datalab and the DfE show us that until 2020 pupils in England with EAL had been pulling ahead of their English first language peers at GCSE. However, the trend stopped in 2020. Results went up for all pupils when we had teacher assessment instead of public exams, but they went up by more for pupils whose first language is English.
Is this just statistical noise or should we at least ask whether teacher assessment may have an unconscious bias against EAL pupils?
EAL in multilingual Britain in 2021
We were delighted to sponsor last November’s NALDIC Conference on Multilingual Britain. Our Managing Director, Graham Smith, spoke on what Multilingual Britain means for EAL practitioners now. You can see what he said here.
Resources you can access for free
Recent additions to the free resource downloads section of our website include:
- a quick overview of national 2019 Key Stage 2 outcomes by ethnicity, EAL and gender
- an excellent set of questions to ask at an admission interview (provided by St Michael’s RC Primary School in Newcastle)
More of our courses go online
We are not planning to schedule any in-person delegate courses for the foreseeable future, but we are still creating new online courses, including one designed specifically for teaching assistants. Our range of short online courses (requiring approximately 12-15 hours of study) are available to complete at any time:
- – EAL for Teaching Assistants
- – EAL and SEND
- – EAL Beginners in the Classroom
- – Leading EAL in Secondary Schools
- – Leading EAL in Primary Schools
- – Early Years and Diversity
- – EAL, Ofsted and the Legal Context
- – EAL in an International School Context
- – Plurilingualism
- – The Achievement of Pupils of Caribbean Heritage
Our six unit online EAL course, newly re-accredited by the University of Greenwich, is now in its ninth year. We will welcome new cohorts on January 15 and March 15. Email contact@theealacademy.co.uk to request an application form.
3L: The new course from the makers of LILAC
Some of you will have head of LILAC (or Teaching ESL students in mainstream classrooms: Language in learning across the curriculum, to give it its full title). We are delighted to announce that we are now working in partnership with its authors at Lexised and will be running a new course, 3L: Language and Literacy for Learning, at the end of February. 3L puts language at the heart of every teacher’s toolkit. Whether you are teaching Science, Mathematics or Art, whether you are teaching children in their primary language or not, this course can transform your work. By focusing on how pupils and teachers make meaning across the curriculum, 3L promotes an integrated, whole-school approach that allows all teachers to become effective teachers of literacy.
If you would like to discuss any of our courses or resources, please get in touch (you can email me or call me on +44 (0)20 3488 2700). Most of all, stay safe.
Rebecca Smith
The EAL Academy
e: rebecca@theealacademy.co.uk
t: +44 (0)20 3488 2700
w: http://www.theealacademy.co.uk