This data is required to inform policy on EAL high needs group – particularly as the current definition of EAL does not distinguish between pupils who lack a basic command of the English language versus those who are bilingual and have mastered English sufficiently to access the curriculum. English language proficiency statistics would therefore provide for the first time important national statistics on the characteristics of this group, along with their attainment and destinations.
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Everyone
This new EAL English proficiency scale is based on the Welsh categories which has been on the system for Wales schools since 2008 or so.
I would recommend you read the article I wrote for NALDIC Quarterly called ‘EAL Assessment - Observations on data from Wales’(NALDIC Quarterly 2015 ISSN 1751-2182 Pages 18-28)
– not to blow my own trumpet but because it points out some of the shortcomings of the 5 Stage model and some of the dangers in the data when it is matched with attainment data – which it will be.
Accurate moderation is essential but valuable training time should certainly be used to complement any focus on assessment with a strong emphasis on good pedagogy to improve language development. The latter must not get lost because of the former.
Crucially important is the annual updating of records. If that isn’t done, then pupils who have progressed to higher stages but are still recorded at the earlier stages will skew results, making it look like early stage learners don’t actually need support!
Don’t try and rush pupils up through the stages to try and show progress – the 5 stages are too broad to be much use in that respect and it will do no good to rush pupils out of support before they’re capable of succeeding independently. Depending on age and a range of other background characteristics, most pupils will get to Stage C within a couple of years and then stay on Stages C and D for a long time. Use a more detailed alternative assessment scheme for monitoring and tracking progress and keep the two systems distinct from one another.
On the other side of the coin, don’t over-assess EAL pupils’ curriculum performance to make them look good. The first 4 EAL Stages indicate that an EAL pupil is BEHIND their typical English First Language peers’ level of academic language proficiency and still needs some support. Saying that Stage A and B pupils are attaining the expected levels (as if without any support) will not help anyone. In my view, no Stage A or B pupil should attain the expected levels in English/Language and Communication and few should attain it in other subject areas either until they are at least early Stage C – (though it depends on the linguistic demands of the tests used in subject areas like maths and science).
The good thing is that you will now be able to distinguish between the attainments of pupils at different stages rather than just having a binary EAL/not EAL distinction. Far from perfect but better than nothing.
Good luck
Jonathan
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One another advantage is the data is collected as part of school census and can be linked without a problem to language census and all key stages assessments for research purpose.
Feyisa Demie
I have not yet tried to access the 2015 data but you can access detailed language census data for all pupils including attainment data by applying to access npd data for research purpose. It takes at least 3 months.
I have managed to access detailed pupil level 2014 KS2 and GCSE data by languages and other background factors. It is a huge data and I am still working on it. Hope to publish as a research report.
Judith
This would certainly improve accuracy of data at school level, especially in the early stages when pupils can progress through one or sometimes even two stages in a year, but I know some EAL teams in Wales have struggled to get all schools and data staff to update their pupils’ EAL Stage on the MIS every year, let alone every term.
In Wales, we have retained a single Annual census day for data but I note that, in England, many items are collected termly. The ‘old’ EAL category was collected termly but for this new item, the guidance says:
“an initial collection in autumn 2016, followed by an annual collection from spring 2017 onwards”
This means the data that will go into the NPD (and be used for national data aggregations and published stats) will be that collected in Spring and the EAL Stage will remain on the NPD until the following year. As we’ve found in Wales, this inevitably leads to a level of unreliability in the data as pupils whose EAL Stage was assessed in Autumn have data entered on MIS for the Spring census and then sit academic/curriculum assessments in Summer. The resulting match of EAL Stage with attainment data therefore links an EAL Stage assessed in Autumn with an academic performance several months later in the following Summer. This skews the national data ‘to the left’, making it appear that EAL pupils at lower EAL Stages are doing better.
For individualised data use in schools, it would be advisable to encourage schools to match EAL Stage at the time of sitting any assessments.
I think it’s probably a case of stressing the importance and value of having good data, and about sharing the expertise and responsibility amongst larger numbers of staff to ensure it gets done.
Jonathan
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Updating termly is a good practice in school. It is useful to improve classroom practice and to share the evidence with headteacher and SMT in pupil progress meetings. This what all our school do at present. Most school organise pp meeting twice tremly to track EAL performance and identify additionsl targetted support.
However, for national or local purpose it is a huge exercise to collect termy data for over a million EAL pupils. It is best data is collected annually (preferably as part of January census).
Feyisa
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The good news is Capita SIMS has already put data collection guidelines using the five stages. It's software is ready for collection of data as part of school census starting Autumn term.
Feyisa
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Yes SIMS software have the guideline and that is to help them to be ready. It is always important to note the final decision with change in school census always lies with Secetary of State. There are implications for school workload.
I will check again tommorrow.
The last time I spoke to the person leading last week no decision was made. He is really keen it is happening like many of us. In fact on the basis of this I even went ahead booking separate training day for our EAL teachers, SAO and data manager in our schools and academies.
Yes SIMS software have the guideline and that is to help them to be ready. It is always important to note the final decision with change in school census always lies with the Secetary of State. There are implications for school workload.
Enter code here...
I have checked again today as promised. Nothing yet. Lets hope decision will be made next week.
Hi all,
There hasn’t been a publication aimed at schools but all of the publications around data software indicate that this will be part of the October census and the January census 2016-17, as well as the CTF.
Another document on DfE Publications this morning supports this. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/common-basic-data-set-cbds-database
It’s hundreds of lines of data information and I don’t recommend it as a fascinating read but the relevant lines are line 42 (old QCA Steps) and line 1393 (new Proficiency in English – see below)
There are too many columns to include here but for the Proficiency in English item the following column headings are indicated.
Autumn School Census 2016 Spring School Census 2017 CTF 16 CTF 17 Spring School Census 2018
Pupil | Pupil Characteristics | 100601 | Proficiency in English | A pupil's proficiency in English | A(1) | <ProficiencyInEnglish> | Inherited | Active | M |
| S | nnn | 2016-02-19 | in systems for inclusion in the 2016 Autumn Census | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Proficiency in English | |
A | New to English |
B | Early Acquisition |
C | Developing competence |
D | Competent |
E | Fluent |
N | Not yet assessed |
As Fi says, Capita have informed schools who use their system about this (but I think without the descriptors of the 5 stages).
Hopefully, DfE information to schools will be coming very soon.
Best wishes,
Melanie
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Is anyone engaging with them about the accompanying stage descriptions?
The present ones are very selective and don’t allow for much interpretation of the gap between E1L and EAL pupils in the Early Years. Any EAL pupil with little or no experience of English prior to starting school will be a long way behind any E1L pupil who has had 4 or 5 years of English language exposure and opportunities for usage, even if their expressive language and literacy (as described in Stages A and B) may not appear hugely different from some of the less communicative E1L pupils. There will be a lot of passive vocabulary and grammar knowledge to catch up on.
Words like ‘some’, ‘simple’, ‘increasing’, ‘more complex’, ‘wide variety’ all have to be interpreted relative to age. The range of words, grammatical patterns and collocations that an average E1L pupil will have encountered in English, which all increase with age, are not really captured by the descriptions of the stages. Whilst this allows them to be used generally, across ages, it all depends on appropriate professional interpretation.
I think the crucial thing for teachers to understand is that, whatever age a child or young person is, any assessment should be informed by a broad profile of information, including knowledge of their background and experiences outside of school, to make sure they’re not over- or under-assessed.
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I think schools are going to have an enormous professional challenge when they clock this change for real. Not on the general radar yet. I know far more schools who only (sort of) assess new arrivals than those who have a fluency record for their full EAL cohort.
In my simple layperson’s way I have particular anxieties about the distinction between competent and fluent.
Willing to bet that most ‘advanced learners’ who make it onto the EAL register at all will be counted as ‘fluent’ when they aren’t. So the ‘plateau effect’ often noted at competency will be very hard to track and address.
I’m not against the scales at all but we are going to have to work very hard with schools via whatever channels of communication we can leverage to make them work.
Di ‘Cassandra’ Leedham
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I think I can out Cassandra you, Di.
Highly skilled EAL experts will always (rightly) contest what these descriptors mean. When I monitored school returns in Newham in the early 90s, the arguments we had about what the descriptors meant were a valuable professional development tool for all concerned.
So in places like Bury and Peterborough, where there are skilled professionals to have that dialogue with schools, it may be a productive process. However, most schools do not have access to that kind of support. So how accurate do we think the data will be? I also have no doubt that there are companies currently developing software that they claim will test pupils and solve the problem for schools.
Even if all the data are accurate when assessments are made, they are out of date when people use them for other purposes, such as comparing stages of EAL development to national test results- a point I think Jonathan made rather well in NALDIC Quarterly not too long ago.
Graham

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However, I recognise there is a huge challenge ahead to make it work and improve some of the weaknesses in the descriptors. We need to find way to engage the Department once it is introduced and became a statutory returns in school census.
Feyisa
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The RFC (Request for Change) document linked to above states:
Reason for change (including benefits):
Whilst the department collects limited information on children who have moved into the English education system from abroad, the collected information is insufficient to ascertain the impact that such entrants have on the education system.
The introduction of these data items will assist in the identification of such pupils and may facilitate the targeting of support to such pupils.
Impact of not doing the change:
Data will not be collected on children new to the English educational system (from abroad) and support may not be correctly targeted.
A further worry is what one might read into the phrase:
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Dead right Bill
That’s the phrase that jumped out at me – not ‘the impacts the education system has on such entrants’ – I think that ‘slip’ reveals it all.
J
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Yes country of birth may be useful for EAL and EMG teachers at school level. It should be left at school level and remain confidential for school use. Some schools may already do but I cannot see any rational for collecting at national level for statistical and educational purpose.
There may be a hidden agenda. It is wrong and counterproductive to collect as national census. The purpose of collecting census data should remain to support children education and tracking pupils progress and not for any other purpose.
Feyisa
Surely census information is recorded for all children in the school, based on parent/carer returns in response to the questions supplied by the DfE
Children are born in lots of places for lots of reasons, planned/unplanned. If this goes ahead, the DfE will end up with a dizzying array of Big Data, much of which is not pertinent to the business of ensuring best outcomes for children in our schools.
That’s where the small print identified by Bill is so odd and dubious. It rather implies some kind of cross referencing is intended between nationality/language/country of birth to construct categories.
Maybe a reason for the delay in sign off is that someone a bit more alert in the DfE has begun to interrogate what a can of worms this might turn out to be. I suspect a lot of families, whatever their heritage, would object to providing schools with passport level information about their children for no apparently good reason.
Di
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The DfE has now published (4 May 2016) on their website the Autumn Term School Census data collection guideline which includes EAL proficiency levels (see page 62-64 in the link below).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-census-2016-to-2017-guide-for-schools-and-las
Feyisa
In the future the data is collected annually as part of Spring Term School Census. It is not a termly returns.
schools are expected also to use the five stages for the purpose of statutory returns.
Hope this information help.
I tend to encourage schools at present to share the data twice termly at pupil progress meeting for improving classroom practice. This means it will be a good practice if at least termly the data is loaded into your MIS software and updated annually for the purpose of statutory returns.
Feyisa
Feyisa
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Following on from Janet’s message, now that the decision has been made by DfE, can I reiterate three points I made before, which I think might be the most helpful in avoiding disappointed expectations about the scale and its data.
1. Recognise that the usefulness of the 5 stage scale is limited – use it only for the purposes it suits best, don’t try to make it do things it can’t do well.
2. Keep the scale separate from your other assessment schemes and use a range of information and your knowledge of the pupils to make a best-fit assessment on the scale i.e.
“based on our range of assessments which show the pupil to be achieving well in this area and that area but with continuing needs in these other areas, we have assessed the pupil to be at Stage … on the 5 Stage Scale”.
3. Try and make your EAL stage assessment as close to the data collection date as possible (allowing for data entry time) to minimise the time-lag.
JB
From: eal-bi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:eal-bi...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of JV
Sent: 05 May 2016 20:55
To: EAL-Bilingual
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Thank you Jonathan. I am sure people will find your advice very helpful. Janet
Hi Sharon
Thanks for sharing the great work you’ve done at Seymour Park. It was next on my list of things to do to write and ask if you were happy with us sharing your photo more widely so glad you’ve got in first and done it!
More examples and case studies will be coming soon but Seymour Park is definitely ahead with their EAL assessment. Steph and I visited the school recently and it was a joy to see the brilliant work Sharon and the rest of the staff have done on EAL assessment, teaching and learning.
Keep checking the NASSEA website for updates and examples from schools www.nassea.org.uk www.facebook.com/nassea.org.uk
The info on alignment with the DfE Stages should be going out today to all who have purchased the NASSEA EAL Assessment Framework.
Best wishes,
Melanie
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I’ve just had a meeting with our data manager and we are inserting a new column into all subject mark sheets for our four rounds of SIMS interim reports, to be filled in for all EAL students by their teachers, using the band descriptors at the same time they fill in all the other progress data. Just for info if anyone’s interested!
Katie
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Key I belive is leadership factors in school that is committed to raising achievement of EAL students. School leaders in the LA value highly language diversity and encourages students to take community languages as part of GCSE and A level. This what I observed in many schools. Another key factors is also, despite cut in funding, school continue to employ first class language and EAL teachers like Ann Horton who have made a huge contribution in supporting EAL pupils and language learning. This came out in our EAL good practice research three years ago.
Thank Diane. It is an interesting report. I will share with schools and within the council.
Feyisa
My personal inclination is to do what is in the best interests of the child and factor in what we might do with this data later (albeit via FOI if necessary)
It’s shocking enough in my view that schools are not required to use the extended codes, bearing in mind the extended codes include such obscure minority tongues as - Bulgarian.
So whatever it takes to get detailed and accurate language information recorded and avoid OTB.
However
· I don’t think it’s appropriate to guess on behalf of parents if there hasn’t been concerted attempts at 1:1 communication. With first language being defined as it currently is, parents need to contextualise whatever language is being spoken now. Which might make it harder to fill in the census of course!
· I’m not sure what I would write down if I was 1:1 and someone refused to respond/sought to answer differently from all the evidence or what child said. Work harder at the relationship I imagine, and emulate the best practice Roma provision models. So maybe OTB in October and aim to update in the fullness of time.
Waiting on Catharine Driver’s thoughts on this one J
Di
From: Merrion-Lancaster, Elizabeth (Entrust) [mailto:elizabeth.mer...@entrust-ed.co.uk]
Sent: 13 May 2016 13:35
To: 'Diane Leedham'; fdemie2
Cc: EAL-Bilingual
Subject: RE: [EAL-Bilingual;5139] Re: Schools to report EAL proficiency levels
We have been having a discussion about the interpretation of paragraph 5.3.2 which says:
Where a pupil’s first language is not English, schools may record specific languages from the extended language codeset or continue to use codes from the short codeset used in CBDS. ENB (Not known but believed to be English) and OTB (Not known but believed to be other than English) are appropriate where a pupil’s first language is not known with absolute certainty where parents have not responded to enquiries, but the school can judge with a high degree of confidence whether it is English or not. Whilst a local authority may specify that schools should use a particular subset of language codes, it is for the school to decide whether or not to record specific languages.
Does this mean that schools only use the code OTB if the pupil’s first language is not known with absolute certainty e.g. because they come from Zimbabwe and school cannot ascertain if they speak Xhosa, Shona, Kalanga etc…?
If schools are confident they know the pupil’s first language, (e.g. because they are from Poland and speak Polish to other children / staff) can schools complete the language information in the absence of a response from parents?
We would appreciate the Group’s view.
Thanks
Liz
Elisabeth Merrion-Lancaster
Consultant
Minority Education Achievement Service (MEAS)
Staffordshire
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----Original message----
From : dale...@gmail.com
Date : 13/05/16 - 14:02 (GMTDT)
To : elizabeth.mer...@entrust-ed.co.uk, fde...@gmail.com
Cc : eal-bi...@googlegroups.com, catharin...@btinternet.com
Apologies if this is 'old' news but it's just been brought to my attention.The DfE will require schools to include details of their puipils' EAL proficiency as of Autumn 2016 as part of the sdchool census data.It would seem they have finally listened to us as their rationale says:This data is required to inform policy on EAL high needs group – particularly as the current definition of EAL does not distinguish between pupils who lack a basic command of the English language versus those who are bilingual and have mastered English sufficiently to access the curriculum. English language proficiency statistics would therefore provide for the first time important national statistics on the characteristics of this group, along with their attainment and destinations.They'll be using the codes from the Welsh education system, which has 5 levels (A-E) plus N (not applicable). Full details here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/common-basic-data-set-cbds-requests-for-change-rfc-2016I guess schools will be working through the implications of this for their assessment systems.Cheers,Frank
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