Imagine what it must feel like to try to learn and make friends in a new school where everyone speaks a language you don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over one in five schoolchildren (1.77 million pupils) speak English as an Additional Language (EAL), more than three times as many as in 2000, and rising. Many arrive in our schools unable to access the curriculum and integrate into school life<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But while multilingual classrooms are now the norm in most state-funded English schools, curriculum and accountability have not kept up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still too many EAL learners experience educational and social exclusion. They are subjected to ill-informed, discriminatory practices which can hamper their language development, progression and ultimately their educational achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, Ofsted\u2019s proposal to explicitly focus on inclusion and on the experiences and outcomes of disadvantaged learners in its new framework is crucial. Doing so must include EAL learners with limited or developing competency in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a hugely diverse group of learners. Their competency in English will vary greatly from being completely new to being competent, fluent and able to fully access curriculum content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ofsted must recognise their diversity of learning and support needs in the new framework it plans to roll out. For Ofsted inspections and reports to be truly inclusive in practice, three key developments are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research shows that EAL pupils\u2019 proficiency in English has the strongest relationship with educational attainment<\/a>, explaining four to six times as much variation as gender, free school meal status and ethnicity combined. Unsurprisingly, their likelihood of success is strongly influenced by their ability to use English competently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Findings highlight attainment gaps for specific groups within this cohort, not just those who are new to English, but those who use certain languages or arrive later in the school system from another country being at particular risk of low attainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the needs of these groups that should be considered in the design of all proposed new Ofsted toolkits, from the definition of inclusion in the inspection framework to report cards themselves. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The educational exclusion that disadvantaged EAL pupils often experience takes many forms and is on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extended withdrawal interventions (where pupils have reduced access to mainstream lessons) can adversely impact their language development, attainment and social integration. A lack of appropriate support can affect their ability to follow lessons, participate fully and successfully show what they have learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, feedback from The Bell Foundation\u2019s partner schools reveals variability in inspector expertise regarding EAL, sometimes leading to inaccurate judgments of the quality of provision. While some showed sound knowledge about EAL learners, others showed a lack of understanding about how to foster language development alongside curriculum learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High-quality in-depth training is required to enable inspectors to hold schools to account for ensuring inclusive education for disadvantaged EAL pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Specific areas could include developing a nuanced understanding of the diversity of the EAL cohort and promoting evidence-informed inclusive multilingual pedagogies, amongst others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the 2021 Census data<\/a> for England and Wales, over 1 million respondents reported that they could not speak English well or at all. Many of these people will be parents or carers <\/a>of EAL pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initiatives to ensure that report cards inform parents and carers of the quality of local schools in an easy-to-understand way are welcome and essential, as the level of linguistic complexity of Ofsted inspection school reports poses unnecessary barriers for many EAL learners\u2019 parents and carers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, for those parents who cannot understand written English, Ofsted should go further and consider incorporating a translation tool to its reporting mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Ofsted\u2019s reforms to be truly inclusive of EAL pupils and their parents, a more nuanced and informed approach to recognising, inspecting and reporting on their needs is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposed reforms are an important opportunity for Ofsted to promote equitable educational opportunities and foster a more inclusive school system. Multilingual learners and their families must be at their heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s how Ofsted’s new framework can begin to account for the diverse needs of students for whom English is an additional language<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311124,"featured_media":227663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3559],"class_list":["post-227797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","post-theme-opinion-accountability"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tInclude disadvantaged EAL learners<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Better-trained inspectors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Inclusive reporting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n