Presentation given by Diana Sutton, Director, The Bell Foundation, at Renaisi's 2014 London schools conference

1. Creative Approaches to Raising the Achievement
of Pupils with English as an Additional Language
Diana Sutton

2. About The Bell Foundation
Cambridge based charitable Foundation, started in
2012, working on two thematic areas:
• Children with English as an additional language
- Research
- Practical programmes with schools
- Partnerships
• Offenders

3. The Bell Foundation’s EAL Programme
Research and
Thought
leadership
Schools
partnerships
Capacity
Building
SHARING
GOOD
PRACTICE

4. Some of our EAL Partnerships
• EAL awareness workshops
• EAL department creation
• EAL classes
• Initial placement tests
• EAL resources
• Buzz in the air!
• Bell Foundation Awards winners 2012
• Work with schools in South London to
link theatre productions to curriculum
• Improvement in reading & writing
Thomas
Clarkson
Academy
Blue Elephant
Theatre – Creative
Minds
Research
• Research report to be
published in April
2014
Luton
Teaching
Schools
Alliance
• EAL CPD and ITE work
• CPD programme for
Primary school
teachers & EAL
coordinators

6. Students with EAL in England

7. Numbers of secondary pupils whose L1
is other than English

8. Current situation in UK
Children
• 1 million EAL students
• 360 languages
• Doubled in 10 years
• Typically underachieve
Teachers
• No EAL discipline in ITE
• ‘patchy’ and inconsistent CPD
• No official credential for EAL
teachers
Schools
• Mixed practice within schools and
practice not shared
• No dedicated EAL curriculum
• Assessment designed for native
speakers
Policy
• No EAL policy
• Limited educational research on EAL
learners
• Limited funding from Government

9. External contexts - EAL
Schools forced to splurge on teaching pupils English
Primary schools are having to spend an estimated £270million a year
teaching young pupils English because their parents are failing to speak
the language at home. (Daily Express – 6/4/13)
Ministers planning immigration
crackdown on 'education tourists
The emails from civil servants advising the IMG – which includes schools
Minister David Laws and immigration Minister Mark Harper – suggest that
the group considered banning illegal immigrant children from schools.
(Guardian 27/3/13)
School where English is foreign to all pupils
A primary school with more than 440 pupils has revealed that not one of
them speaks English as a first language (Sunday Times 24/2/13)

10. Facts & Figures from around the World
USA
• Number of ESL speakers (5-
17yrs)
4.7m 1980 UP TO 11.2m 2011
(21% of population)
• 2011 Obama administration
changed policy to allow each
state DoE to customise curricula
in schools to reflect ELL
provision.
Australia
Victoria – Rigorous, coherent & systematic approach
to English Language policy development.
-15% ESL students in metropolitan schools.
- Access to new arrivals ESL Programme.
- - State funding to support ESL students in ELL
across curriculum.
Germany
Stiftung Mercator Foundation -
GSL now a mandatory part of
ITE in North Germany & on
course to become national
policy.
Canada - British Columbia
• Primary – full immersion with
6 hours systematic language
support .
• Secondary – new arrival
programme to transition into
mainstream education
Sweden
• Preparatory programme for new
arrivals (6-12 mths)
• SSL explicit curriculum

11. Germany
The Mercator Institute for Language Training and
German as a Second Language.
• Goal: improving second language training in the German
education system
• The Institute aims to advise policy-makers on how to
improve language training in early child care and
schools, and to held states with the introduction of the
GSL Module for teacher training to provide teachers with
the ability to teach German in every subject.
• The Institute has a budget for funding research and
connecting researchers in this field.

13. Broad approach

14. Funding support for EAL learners
‘Pupils with English as an additional
language (EAL) often require additional
support. We have considered the evidence
on how much support is needed and […]
have decided that 3 years – from the point
at which the pupil enters compulsory
education in England – should be
sufficient.’ (DFE 2012)

15. Policy and reality
Read the summary of current government policy
Mentally situate yourself in your school contexts
Consider:
1. How is government policy in relation to EAL learners
being implemented in the schools you’ve been and are
currently placed?
2. In your experience what is the actual impact of
government policy on the lives of EAL learners, their
teachers, other learners, the school as a whole?

16. ‘Pupils learning EAL are
generally taught in the
mainstream class alongside
their peers.’
3 years’ additional support
from the point of entry
‘should be sufficient’ for
pupils with EAL.
Policy and reality:
demands on students with EAL
The starting point for
students with EAL is radically
different from other students
It may take 7 or more years
to achieve academic parity
with their monolingual peers
(NALDIC, 2002)

17. The Distinctiveness of EAL
Students with EAL
• are learning
– the curriculum through English
– English at the same time as Science, Maths, etc.
• have to
– learn the social and academic practices inherent
in the AL
– accommodate the values, expectations and
culture inherent in the AL
Franson, Brown, Cameron and South (2002)

18. Finding from the pilot phase
• Parental engagement is challenging
• The loss of LA funding leading to loss of
expertise.
• EAL not well addressed in teacher training.
• EAL delivered by PE teacher, TAs.
• No agreed methodology or curriculum.
• Few organisations working on this issue.
• Children may not achieve to their full potential

19. What we learned so far….
• Feel ‘at a loss’ as to how to help
students with EAL
• Often use inaccessible language in
the classroom
• Rely on bilingual TAs and Google
translate
Staff Staff
“I know I am failing these (EAL) pupils
as they come into class and stare into
space but just don’t know how to help
them without spending hours
translating everything”
Teacher.
Students
• Feel isolated from other pupils
• Are often bored during class
• Would like the opportunity to
improve their English
• Have high aspirations

20. Idioms

21. Contact
http://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/
https://twitter.com/bellfoundation
info@bell-foundation.org.uk

22. Questions?