Re: [EAL-Bilingual;10321] Digest for eal-bilingual@googlegroups.com - 5 updates in 1 topic

[Frank.Monaghan]

You can find the Calderdale Report here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28327691?seq=2

In brief, it was a 1986 report by the Commission for Racial Equality looking at the arrangements for the education of Asian children in Calderdale, a small borough council in West Yorkshire. The children were being taught away from mainstream schools in a council building that did not have the normal range of facilities you’d find in a school, and even where there were withdrawal units within schools in the area, they offered a very reduced curriculum and little opportunity for the students to learn alongside their peers. 

The report, along with The Swann Report, published a year earlier, set in m motion a large shift in thinking and practice towards mainstreaming EAL provision, largely from a concern with grew social consequences of racism, with less emphasis on EAL pedagogy. Interestingly, the recommendations of the Calderdale Report included such things as:

•  Provision for second language speakers is made in conjunction with mainstream education and the assessment of such children’s language needs is made in a mainstream setting over time.
• A programme of inservice training is implemented both for mainstream teachers who will receive second language learners in their classrooms and for ESL teachers who are going to become part of the mainstream themselves. All teachers will need to be aware of their different roles in the new system and a continuous programme of inservice training will be needed.
• The LEA considers ways of increasing the number of bilingual teachers in its service.

Whilst mainstreaming is considered the orthodox approach now, are we confident that the infrastructure needed to support its successful implementation are in place?

As someone who entered EAL teaching in 1983, i.e. precisely as the debates over withdrawal versus mainstream were raging (and they were very contentious amongst colleagues, I can assure you!) it’s interesting (and a little depressing,) to see how things have developed, not always for the better, I think. When I first started teaching - in a large (2 0000), multilingual school in central London with ca. 30% bilingual students, ca 30% of whom were classified as ’new arrivals’ - we had at one point some 19 (!) full-time-equivalent EAL teachers to meet the needs - and we didn’t really think that was enough!. I was one of a large number of  teachers in that group who had a specific EAL PGCE teaching qualification, others had RSA diplomas in EAL - where are such qualifications now?. As a newly qualified teacher, I spent an afternoon a week in my first year at a local authority centre receiving ongoing in-service training alongside my mainstream ‘probationary’ colleagues, including several sessions at the Centre for Urban Education Studies, focused on inclusive, anti-racist education. Hard to imagine this level of provision existing now even though EAL populations have continued to grow and the problems ion racism have not gone away.

So, why the history lesson? Well, I think it’s important to recognise that you cannot divorce the provision you make from the social and economic context and realities in which it is meant to occur. I spent my 18-year  school-teaching career committed to mainstream working, but it was in a school, that supported it not only theoretically but also in terms of resourcing. It is simply cheaper to withdraw students than to provide specialist EAL teachers and bilingual assistants to work alongside well-trained mainstream colleagues who have time allotted to planning inclusive pedagogy that delivers both content and language. Should that still be the aim? Yes, but always remembering it is about both content and language! Orthodoxies should never become dogmas and we always have to be open to rethinking what works for our particular contexts and needs. I can certainly see a place for specific provision for EAL learners, particularly those with limited/no prior schooling.

We should not forget our history - so I would encourage colleagues to read those reports - and we should also learn from it so that we don’t repeat its mistakes, and even, if possible, avoiding making entirely new ones all of our own!

Regards,

Frank

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• Separate EAL provision for new arrivals?? - 5 Updates

Separate EAL provision for new arrivals??

Anwar Khan <Anwar...@plumsteadmanor.com>: Nov 05 02:43PM Dear Colleagues, I came across this Ofsted blog (see link below) where they appear to speak positively about a separate EAL provision for recent EAL arrivals before integration into the whole school. I'm not sure what EAL training the inspector or their colleague with EAL experience has had. My understanding was that this was poor practice based on the Calderdale Report and that EAL pupils mixing in the mainstream was essential to their overall learning and development. I couldn't verify/find the Calderdale Report by searching online- can anyone assist with finding this? At our school pupils go into the mainstream immediately, using the class friends system, in-class support and are withdrawn 1-2 periods a week for Access to English/ Literacy classes depending on their needs. I would appreciate your perspective on this and what happens in your schools.   Kind regards   Anwar   Link and extract below   What Dan Owen, Her Majesty’s Inspector, looks at on a short inspection – Ofsted: education<https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/18/what-dan-owen-her-majestys-inspector-looks-at-on-a-short-inspection/> 'The school’s intake The school has groups of unaccompanied asylum seekers and children who’ve never had any formal schooling. The school assesses each pupil to determine their level of English language skills. They’re initially taught in a separate EAL unit for a few weeks. Following that they gradually enter lessons full time.'     Anwar Khan   Head of EAL (A105a)       Tel. No.: 020 3260 3159   [cid:image0...@01D1DDA8.242F5120]   www.plumsteadmanor.com<http://www.plumsteadmanor.com/>

zoe welsh <zoe...@live.co.uk>: Nov 05 08:21PM Hi Anwar,   This is really interesting. We have large numbers of asylum- seeking pupils at our school. I have run separate provision for groups of asylum seekers in the recent past.   The pupils still mixed with the mainstream children for learning and for play - it's a primary school. The benefits are being able to provide a curriculum and pedagogy more suited to the needs of pupils who are new to English and who may have experienced trauma.   I don't think there's a national policy about this, like most things EAL, I don't know about the Calderdale Report and I'm currently writing up doctoral research which covers policy about EAL so I'm interested to know what it said!   Zoë   Sent from Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: 'Anwar Khan' via EAL-Bilingual <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 2:43 pm To: 'hamishc...@mac.com' via EAL-Bilingual <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com> Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;10316] Separate EAL provision for new arrivals??   Dear Colleagues, I came across this Ofsted blog (see link below) where they appear to speak positively about a separate EAL provision for recent EAL arrivals before integration into the whole school. I'm not sure what EAL training the inspector or their colleague with EAL experience has had. My understanding was that this was poor practice based on the Calderdale Report and that EAL pupils mixing in the mainstream was essential to their overall learning and development. I couldn't verify/find the Calderdale Report by searching online- can anyone assist with finding this? At our school pupils go into the mainstream immediately, using the class friends system, in-class support and are withdrawn 1-2 periods a week for Access to English/ Literacy classes depending on their needs. I would appreciate your perspective on this and what happens in your schools.   Kind regards   Anwar   Link and extract below   What Dan Owen, Her Majesty’s Inspector, looks at on a short inspection – Ofsted: education<https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/18/what-dan-owen-her-majestys-inspector-looks-at-on-a-short-inspection/> 'The school’s intake The school has groups of unaccompanied asylum seekers and children who’ve never had any formal schooling. The school assesses each pupil to determine their level of English language skills. They’re initially taught in a separate EAL unit for a few weeks. Following that they gradually enter lessons full time.'     Anwar Khan   Head of EAL (A105a)       Tel. No.: 020 3260 3159   [cid:image0...@01D1DDA8.242F5120]   www.plumsteadmanor.com<http://www.plumsteadmanor.com/>       -- This group is managed by NALDIC, the UK's EAL Professional Association. Please visit our website for further information: www.naldic.org.uk. Twitter: @EAL_naldic. NALDIC's Privacy Policy | https://naldic.org.uk/privacy-policy   National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum A Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee in England and Wales. Charity No 1110570. Company No 05159760 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EAL-Bilingual" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to eal-bilingua...@googlegroups.com<mailto:eal-bilingual+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/eal-bilingual/AM6PR07MB469300FDB66E0A6F33E775E1E0C5A%40AM6PR07MB4693.eurprd07.prod.outlook.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/eal-bilingual/AM6PR07MB469300FDB66E0A6F33E775E1E0C5A%40AM6PR07MB4693.eurprd07.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

T Simpson <tugcec...@gmail.com>: Nov 05 08:35PM Hi all,   About the Calderdale report, you might specifically search for 1986 the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). Although there are sources which cited from it and doctoral thesis written on it, I have not come across an electronic copy yet - but I assume it might be found in nationsl libraries.   Also check: EAL Provision and Funding - The Bell Foundation https://share.google/HaYJkwPrTFqrMQUgx           Thanks,   Best wishes, Tuğçe Çankaya Simpson

M D <marc...@gmail.com>: Nov 05 09:05PM We were inspected in October (new framework). They spoke highly of our provision- full-time alternative curriculum for the illiterate new arrivals.   Best wishes, Marcin

Anna Cuccia <annavirgi...@gmail.com>: Nov 05 09:22PM Immersing secondary pupils who are A1 level in the mainstream curriculum is exhausting for them. It's hard to get by with a Chrome book and little else. 2 periods a week of EAL isn't enough if they don't have the basics. Imho. Primary I feel is different, but still a big ask on their cognitive load.   Anna Cuccia

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[Stuart Scott]

Thanks Frank! An excellent summary. I've put a link to it from the other string. There is a typo on the percentages at North Westminster: 30% new arrivals sounds right but should bilingual be 70% or 80%?

Stuart

Collaborative Learning Project. A teacher network sharing talk for learning resources.

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[John Clegg]

I agree with Stuart: Frank has written an informed and informative response to this issue. In the 80s and 90s in the London borough of Ealing we ran two INSET courses for EAL and mainstream teachers (1 year part-ime, I term full-time) leading to the Royal Society of Arts Diploma in Teaching English across the Curriculum in Multilingual Schools. The question of mainstreaming drove our EAL thinking and practice from the 80s and Calderdale onwards.The RSA changed the name of this course to reflect the concept of cross-curricular language work. The focus of EAL training was on mainstream provision: whole-school EAL support, both in planning and teaching, the language demands of curricular subjects and how to help learners meet them in the mainstream classroom, the pedagogy of teaching mainstream subjects to multilingual learners and of developing learner language ability by specialist EAL teachers, as well as on whole-school encouragement of anti-racist edcuation. 

 

However, as Frank and other colleagues have pointed out, you can't teach learners effectively in mainstream classrooms unless you can support them, with whole-school planning, language-aware mainstream and support staff, and appropriate pedagogy and materials on something like the scale that Frank remembers. Looking at present-day EAL now from the outside, my impression is that good practice - and sometimes new practices - are available and developing. But I suspect that many schools are not in a position to offer fully effective mainstream support. In that case forms of separate provision may sometimes be necessary, as long as they are time-limited and orientated to the mainstream curriculum. When they are offered within the mainstream school (as opposed to external provision which Frank mentions and which concerned Calderdale) and within a whole-school plan for EAL, they can help some learners who may otherwise sink in the mainstream classroom. 

 

Best wishes

John Clegg

 

 

On 06/11/2025 10:40 GMT 'Frank.Monaghan' via EAL-Bilingual <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

 

 

You can find the Calderdale Report here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28327691?seq=2

 

In brief, it was a 1986 report by the Commission for Racial Equality looking at the arrangements for the education of Asian children in Calderdale, a small borough council in West Yorkshire. The children were being taught away from mainstream schools in a council building that did not have the normal range of facilities you’d find in a school, and even where there were withdrawal units within schools in the area, they offered a very reduced curriculum and little opportunity for the students to learn alongside their peers. 

 

The report, along with The Swann Report, published a year earlier, set in m motion a large shift in thinking and practice towards mainstreaming EAL provision, largely from a concern with grew social consequences of racism, with less emphasis on EAL pedagogy. Interestingly, the recommendations of the Calderdale Report included such things as:

•  Provision for second language speakers is made in conjunction with mainstream education and the assessment of such children’s language needs is made in a mainstream setting over time.
• A programme of inservice training is implemented both for mainstream teachers who will receive second language learners in their classrooms and for ESL teachers who are going to become part of the mainstream themselves. All teachers will need to be aware of their different roles in the new system and a continuous programme of inservice training will be needed.
• The LEA considers ways of increasing the number of bilingual teachers in its service.

Whilst mainstreaming is considered the orthodox approach now, are we confident that the infrastructure needed to support its successful implementation are in place?

 

As someone who entered EAL teaching in 1983, i.e. precisely as the debates over withdrawal versus mainstream were raging (and they were very contentious amongst colleagues, I can assure you!) it’s interesting (and a little depressing,) to see how things have developed, not always for the better, I think. When I first started teaching - in a large (2 0000), multilingual school in central London with ca. 30% bilingual students, ca 30% of whom were classified as ’new arrivals’ - we had at one point some 19 (!) full-time-equivalent EAL teachers to meet the needs - and we didn’t really think that was enough!. I was one of a large number of  teachers in that group who had a specific EAL PGCE teaching qualification, others had RSA diplomas in EAL - where are such qualifications now?. As a newly qualified teacher, I spent an afternoon a week in my first year at a local authority centre receiving ongoing in-service training alongside my mainstream ‘probationary’ colleagues, including several sessions at the Centre for Urban Education Studies, focused on inclusive, anti-racist education. Hard to imagine this level of provision existing now even though EAL populations have continued to grow and the problems ion racism have not gone away.

 

So, why the history lesson? Well, I think it’s important to recognise that you cannot divorce the provision you make from the social and economic context and realities in which it is meant to occur. I spent my 18-year  school-teaching career committed to mainstream working, but it was in a school, that supported it not only theoretically but also in terms of resourcing. It is simply cheaper to withdraw students than to provide specialist EAL teachers and bilingual assistants to work alongside well-trained mainstream colleagues who have time allotted to planning inclusive pedagogy that delivers both content and language. Should that still be the aim? Yes, but always remembering it is about both content and language! Orthodoxies should never become dogmas and we always have to be open to rethinking what works for our particular contexts and needs. I can certainly see a place for specific provision for EAL learners, particularly those with limited/no prior schooling.

 

We should not forget our history - so I would encourage colleagues to read those reports - and we should also learn from it so that we don’t repeat its mistakes, and even, if possible, avoiding making entirely new ones all of our own!

 

Regards,

 

Frank

 

 

From: eal-bi...@googlegroups.com <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 6 November 2025 at 07:36
To: Digest recipients <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;10321] Digest for eal-bi...@googlegroups.com - 5 updates in 1 topic

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[Ann Horton]

I agree - it's a very important point that while we may want the optimum support system for our EAL pupils, schools may not be in a position to provide that, so we have to do the best we can in th situation we find ourselves. Using separate provision / withdrawal lessons to focus on mainstream subjects like science can be really beneficial if the school doesn't have the effective whole-school EAL support and planning that would be ideal. We have to be pragmatic as well as idealistic!

Ann

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