Home language vs First Language

[Helen Rowe]

Hello - it is the same topic which seems to come up regularly. We have been very successful here in Solihull at getting schools to be proactive in identifying the EAL pupils in their schools. So succesful that some schools have been getting phone calls from the DFE querying their figures because they have gone up by so much! We are all fairly confident with defining EAL now but the issue still remains with SIMS which has the confusing Home Language/First Language distinction. The issue is further complicated by the fact that there are very few options in the drop down box for Home Language compared to that for First Language which makes it difficult to define many of the pupils' first languages as anything other than English. This, of course, is the limitations of the software but the question was asked at out network meeting today - what are other schools doing about this? So I am asking - any ideas would be helpful. Thanks very much (in anticipation)!

[Christiana Rose]

We encourage our schools to ignore the home language box, but to complete the first language as accurately as possible. We explain that this doesn't necessarily mean the strongest language, but the first language that the child was exposed to in the home. That usually gets the correct data entries. However, if we could get the DFE to abolish the home language box, that would be even better and avoid all the confusion!

Christiana Rose

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Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2015 09:29:12 -0800
From: helenr...@gmail.com
To: eal-bi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;4323] Home language vs First Language

Hello - it is the same topic which seems to come up regularly. We have been very successful here in Solihull at getting schools to be proactive in identifying the EAL pupils in their schools. So succesful that some schools have been getting phone calls from the DFE querying their figures because they have gone up by so much! We are all fairly confident with defining EAL now but the issue still remains with SIMS which has the confusing Home Language/First Language distinction. The issue is further complicated by the fact that there are very few options in the drop down box for Home Language compared to that for First Language which makes it difficult to define many of the pupils' first languages as anything other than English. This, of course, is the limitations of the software but the question was asked at out network meeting today - what are other schools doing about this? So I am asking - any ideas would be helpful. Thanks very much (in anticipation)!

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[Catharine]

Actually it is not the Dfe but Capita ( who own SIMS ) who are causing this problem. Other schools using different MISs don't have this problem.

The Dfe School Census asks schools to collect and record First Language and provide an extensive set of codes. 

SIMS have added the Home language field for some reason. It is possible to upload all the language codes to the Home language field as well, but you need a savvy data manager to work out how to do it. This field can be added to teacher mark sheets so it is worth doing for this reason. 

Better to ring Capita and and annoy them so much that they change their misleading system!

But you do need to ask schools to check that the correct language data is sent in the January Census return. Because I think some schools send off the data from the Home Language field and that is why the national pupil data base has 1000s of pupils recorded as 'Language other than English' or 'Believed to be other than English' etc. And in lots of places no one is checking it looks right before they press SEND. 

The main message to EAL Teachers, TAs, coordinators etc is talk the person who does the census return and get it as accurate as possible before the end of term. If you are not sure - ask someone in SLT. It's their responsibility to send an accurate return! 

Catharine

[Diane Leedham]

I can verify the truth of this from personal experience this week. 

Working with experienced office administrator with years of experience with SIMs but who didn't know about the extended language codes. 

 Catharine's support has been invaluable though we are not out of the woods yet! 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Ann Horton]

I've spoken to my data manager about this - Catharine knows we had another conversation earlier this year about this ongoing problem. She's right about contacting Capita,I think - my data manager (who is actually very good) didn't know how to change the system.

I store the first languages elsewhere on the EAL register, so if we need to make census returns, I will ensure that my data gets returned, not what's on SIMS!

Ann

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From: Catharine <catharin...@btinternet.com>
To: EAL-Bilingual <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:41 PM
Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;4337] Re: Home language vs First Language

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[Ann Horton]

I've spoken to my data manager about this - Catharine knows we had another conversation earlier this year about this ongoing problem. She's right about contacting Capita,I think - my data manager (who is actually very good) didn't know how to change the system.

I store the first languages elsewhere on the EAL register, so if we need to make census returns, I will ensure that my data gets returned, not what's on SIMS!

Ann

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From: Catharine <catharin...@btinternet.com>
To: EAL-Bilingual <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 8:41 PM
Subject: [EAL-Bilingual;4337] Re: Home language vs First Language

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[Robert Sharples]

Hi everyone,

I've interviewed a few officials at the DfE (including those who specifically work with school data for Raise and the National Pupil Database) and thought it might be of interest. They make no bones about how 'clunky' and 'user-unfriendly' the system is, but also explained that as the data moves up the scale (from school, to Raise, to National Pupil Database) it loses detail. At the national level all you can really see is 'EAL' or 'not-EAL'. Policy-makers literally cannot see the situation on the ground from the data they get, no matter how detailed the language codes used by schools.

So - language codes are really important at the school level, and a little at local authority level, but not much beyond.

The data categories are very reductive in any case because they only accept a single 'other' language (if anyone knows of a system where this is more flexible please let me know!). Again, this conflicts with the reality in classrooms, where it's common for pupils to have fluency in more than one language. We tend to think that you need to have a 'whole' language to use it in school, but a series of studies at Goldsmiths (http://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/belifs) found that a lot of learning took place in faith settings - e.g. where Arabic was used at the mosque, but not at home. In my own data, the students' broader language 'repertoires' often stay hidden in school because teachers are only expecting a single other language (often because that's all that shows up on their register - thanks, SIMS !).

I would welcome the distinction between home and first languages because they're often not the same (and languages known are often specific to the domains they're used in), but I'm not sure how workable the distinction is in day-to-day reality. What's really important is to recognise that children will have a repertoire of skills - including writing in different scripts (often shared between languages) - and won't easily fit into the single-other-language boxed provided by the likes of Capita.

As Helen says, the 'EAL' / 'First Language' returns are a powerful tool in getting colleagues to recognise and to think about the language needs of their children, but at best they're still only tick-boxes. Are pupils allowed to use their full range (or repertoire) of languages in the classroom as part of learning, or only English and translation from another? Do teachers know about how these children are learning at home, in the community, in faith settings, or are they assuming that they're not (which is pretty unlikely). Are we going further to see EAL pupils as fluent and creative language users, or sticking them in an 'EAL' box and leaving them for the EAL teachers to sort out? My guess is that EAL specialists across the board get the importance of these issues, but that it's not widespread among colleagues in general.

So - yes, my tuppence is to use the categories that are useful to your school because they won't be used much outside it. Leverage the numbers for funding if possible, or to persuade recalcitrant colleagues that EAL is important and a part of everybody's responsibility, but perhaps don't expect too much from Capita and the DfE!

All best wishes,

Rob

[Diane Leedham]

Points fully taken and in full agreement.

 

But nevertheless the census return data is collated and reported nationally and gets media attention when released.

 

There is usually an interest in number of languages and numbers speaking those languages however broad brush and incomplete that information might be.

It’s also becomes part of the school profile for external partners, whether LAs or other

 

I do think it’s important to get it as right as possible with the tools we have to use – in particular to get SIMs repopulated with the extended language codes. I increasingly suspect problems with this is at the heart of the majority of the  ‘pending’ and ‘language other than English’ returns in place for 10% of the recorded EAL demographic.

 

Next step more adaptive and flexible reporting to capture pupils’ full linguistic repertoires – yes please. 

 

But worth working to firm up the returns on behalf of that 10% in the mean time.

 

Di

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[Ann Horton]

I just checked with our data manager, and, yes, as Rob said, we only return EAL/not EAL/believed to be (not) EAL.

I checked with our data manager, and yes, as Rob said, we only send in (not) EAL / believed to be (not) EAL.

I do indicate extra languages spoken in the EAL notes section of SIMS, and my EAL register on our network has a bit more information still (some colour-coded, which always helps!), so a more rounded view of EAL students and their linguistic repertoire is available if staff are interested.

Ann

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From: Diane Leedham <dale...@gmail.com>
To: 'Robert Sharples' <rob.sh...@outlook.com>; 'EAL-Bilingual' <eal-bi...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 1:46 PM
Subject: RE: [EAL-Bilingual;4345] Re: Home language vs First Language

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/eal-bilingual/00c301d11d50%24929e1d80%24b7da5880%24%40com.

[Diane Leedham]

This is all a bit intriguing then.

 

The specific languages (using or not using the extended codes for the First/Home Languages drop down) do end up in the census report which is published after  the census return.

 

And there are definitely reported categories along the lines of first language  ‘believed to be other than English’ etc.  Catharine Driver picked that up last summer when the January 15 return was published  -in about June/July I think. 

 

It surely shows what a pixillated and sorry mess the whole creaky system is,  whichever end of the knot one pulls hopefully

 

Di

[Robert Sharples]

I think it’s a case of having to look from multiple perspectives at once. The data collection process is a servant of many masters, and they don’t always want the same thing…

 

In school, these data returns have to be completed but don’t have an obvious relationship with what happens in the classroom – as Ann said, putting EAL information in the notes is a way of subverting the restrictions that the system puts in place. Most teachers don’t look at the information, but transforming knowledge-about-pupils into official data can have other useful (but originally unintended) consequences: as Helen said, it gets colleagues to recognise what’s happening with the pupils; as Diane said it can also speak to partners outside the school.

 

The data system, though, is originally a management tool (this was unambiguous in interviews with the DfE). It’s for holding schools accountable … and that means different things at school level (where you generate ‘data’), at local level (where you probably know the LEA advisor well) and at national level (where they’re only interested in large-scale effects). This is also a problem for researchers – the NPD isn’t designed for research, just for management.

 

(Incidentally, it’s why Di found the system ‘pixillated’ – quite rightly: depending on which level you look at, and who’s writing the report, you can get quite different pictures. Raise, for example, really struggles to combine multiple categories, such as low-income Pakistani boys [FSM, language/nationality, gender], so there’s a limit on how much you’ll ever get out of a Raise report, even though the data’s there in the system.)

 

In effect, we’re all secondary users trying to make something of a system that was designed for people holding schools to account … BUT at the same time we’re expected to use this system to deepen our understanding and inform practice. They’re not easily compatible, which is why we end up with so many work-arounds. (I heartily recommend Jack Marwood’s blog on school data – polemical and statistically astute, as well as very readable: http://icingonthecakeblog.weebly.com).

 

So where does that leave us? Using a system that doesn’t work for actual teaching and learning, having to force our thinking out of these reductive categories every time we use SIMS. Data managers are brilliant, though. If you can persuade them to make you a bespoke spreadsheet with all the information (literacy practices, language repertoires, learning in schools and other settings, etc.) you could be on to a winner. Only then they’ll still have to put all the ‘data’ (i.e. stuff the kids into Capita’s boxes) into the system all the same …

 

Rob