Separate EAL provision for new arrivals??

[Anwar Khan]

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At our school pupils go into the mainstream immediately, using the class friends system, in-class support and are withdrawn 1-2 periods a week for Access to English/ Literacy classes depending on their needs.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

'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

www.plumsteadmanor.com

 

[zoe welsh]

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

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[T Simpson]

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

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[M D]

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

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[Anna Cuccia]

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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[Mark Sims]

Here you go, Zoe

I was teaching in one of the language centres in Oldham in 1985 when they were all closed because of this report 

Mark

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28327691.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3Af28322cd3b35fff4e71893cc8e6f5f36&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1

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[Graham Smith]

How do you define the basics?

I ask because when I went to live and work in France as an 18 year old, I already had an A level in French.  However, on my first day I didn't really understand what my new colleagues (none of whom spoke any English) were saying to me in French. It was too quick and too colloquial for me.

Best wishes,
Graham

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[Stuart Scott]

Frank Monaghan has written a detailed response with respect to the Calderdale Report and a frank assessment of the issues of mainstreaming and separate provision which, as I was in the thick of it at the time, I thoroughly endorse.  It  has popped up in a different string:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqkvkWlGrRpvkbDBddbDDxzMM

 Most of my work in schools with collaborative learning and partnership teaching has concentrated on making the mainstream teaching more EAL compatible and improving synergy between different specialists. But if teachers are going to be able to plan together and work together to encourage children to do likewise you need time and time needs money. Some colleagues are working on the history of EAL provision and I'd be grateful if anyone has access to Trevor Burgin and Patricia Edmonds book on Spring Grove School (Huddersfield) published by Oxford  1967. I did my first teaching practice there in 1963 while studying at Leeds. The mills were working 24 hours a day and the night shift was run by recent migrants who lived in the terraces around the school. The school was built on the site of the original millowners mansion so the view of smoking chimneys was memorable and magnificent. My experience strongly influenced my future thinking.

Stuart

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

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[Stuart Scott]

Correction! The coauthor of the book on Spring Grove is Patricia Edson. 

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

www.collaborativelearning.org

17 Barford Street, London N1 0QB 44 207 226 8885

[eowyncr...@gmail.com]

There is a new report out from Australia (not sure if it's been published yet) that has student voice on this issue. They have separate provision for (some) new arrivals with EAL, that inludes a team of specialist teachers, social workers, etc. The students actually report very positively on the provision, and feel it's quite hard when they transition to 'normal' schools and don't have the same level of understanding and support. I think it's really important to remember that when we are talking about 'inclusion', a student isn't included if they don't have enough language to access learning and be included socially. Our provision needs to be rooted in student needs, and we can't meet all student needs in the mainstream, especially when we have complex profiles in terms of English, literacy, and trauma. 

[chris.pim]

I am retired now after 25 years working in this sector, but do keep abreast of current thinking including chat here. For what it is worth these are my thoughts.

Firstly, I remain a believer in what 50 years of research, to my knowledge, overwhelmingly suggests and which accords with my personal experience as a class teacher and then as an adviser. That in most circumstances EAL learners at all stages and ages are better off in the mainstream when taught by trained professionals. This is where they make most rapid progress in acquisition of EAL and content learning.There are still many teams around the country advocating this approach. It is a shame that we hear less and less from them on this group in these politically sensitive times.

I absolutely take on board the ever decreasing circles of money and resourcing and its negative impact on enabling the above approach. But i also see tremendous opportunity with technology supporting busy teachers and other support professionals to hold onto best practice.

Whilst i totally agree that a pupil's voice is essential in understanding what works at an individual level, i would also urge a degree of caution. This also goes for what adults working in withdrawal setting also say about what seens to be working. I have not seen specific current research in this area and i am making a general point rather than commenting on specific research. I have always had a degree of scepticism about what appears to work for fear of falling for what i have dubbed 'pedagogical placebo'. What pupils and professionals say works may be absolutely well researched and clear and true, but it may also be a desire to want to believe it is more effective than mainstreaming support. It seems to me that what is actually happening sometimes is that it feels supportive and more comfortable for a learner (in and if itself important of course) but not necessarily the most effective, and for professionals it may be the most pragmatic approach for both the professional offering support within the mainstream and the mainstream class teacher .. rather than what can be achieved through the more complex and harder approach that i alluded to previously.

I offer these views in a gesture of widening the conversation.

Chris

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[Stuart Scott]

This string has split and there are more responses on:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqkvkWlGrRpvkbDBddbDDxzMM

Could the NALDIC moderator join the strings up again? 

Stuart

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

www.collaborativelearning.org

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