Management Information Sheet

Schools and Academies will be required to report levels of English proficiency for EAL learners in the schools' census from Autumn Term 2016.

Overview of Department for Education requirements:-

• Schools and academies will be required to give EAL children in Reception and above an EAL language proficiency level from A (New to English) to E (fluent).
• Schools and Academies will be required to give the child's country of birth and nationality.
• A code of N (not yet assessed) will be acceptable until the January 2017 census, when it will be expected that all pupils will have been assessed.

Key Information from the latest census information document relating to EAL

5.2.1 Ethnicity

5.3.3 New Section - Proficiency of English

This data will be collected where the language has been recorded for anything other than 'English' or 'Believed to be English'. This is necessary for children from Reception (or aged 4 at 31st August 2016 and above). The census includes details of each of descriptor.

The level descriptors are:

1. New to English
2. Early Acquisition
3. Developing competence
4. Competent
5. Fluent

Code N - Not yet Assessed is available for use in the October census to support schools to ensure they have enough time to assess any new pupils in September. From the January 2017 census this code will only be able to be used for pupils joining the schools close to census day.

Code C is a very 'wide' band. Children may, under the 'best fit' system, fall into this band & then remain there for some time. The MAAS team can provide professional guidance to schools and academies to support the monitoring of the progress of these students.

Code E - The Minorities Achievement and Attainment Service professional advice to schools and academies is to consider the evidence they have before a judgement is made that a student is fluent. Research shows that pupils are not 'fluent', especially in terms of literacy, until they have been in education for at least 5-7 years. Schools and Academies should continue to monitor proficiency on an ongoing basis to ensure adequate levels of EAL support are provided to support the child's education once a child is assessed as fluent (E) although re-assessment of the child is not necessary.

5.3.4 New Section - Country of birth

5.3.5 New Section - Pupils' Nationality

5.3.4 and 5.3.5 should be stated by parent / guardian and / or child (for children without parents or guardians) There is no requirement for the school to see a copy of birth certificate of passport but the information could be derived from this.

Schools can used 'refused' where parents refuse to provide the information or 'not yet obtained' where the data has not been obtained by census day.' Not known' can only be used where a guardian or adoptive parent has not been able to access this information.

Minorities Achievement and Attainment Service additional guidance on Monitoring and Assessment for EAL

• We advise schools to use a detailed and diagnostic form of monitoring progress which will also inform next steps and targets. The NASSEA framework is a good example and it has an 'alignment grid' so that the descriptors it uses can be transferred onto the Census's stages.
• It is acceptable not to expect younger children in EYFS and KS1 to reach 'fluent' or even 'competent', as the English they are able to use actively at this age is still not fully developed.
• Older pupils may appear fluent in terms of speaking and listening, but care should be taken to fully assess their literacy levels, taking into consideration factors such as time spent in full time education, exposure to English, first language literacy.
• We advise schools to perform an initial assessment on all new EAL pupils after a settling in period. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on the child's age and ability in English. The MAAS team can provide training and consultancy to support Schools and Academies.

The Minorities Achievement and Attainment Service will be providing briefing sessions in July to provide some additional guidance to School and Academy leaders.

This session will:

• give an overview of the schools' census requirements for EAL pupils
• provide advice to ensure schools are able to formulate an appropriate response

Briefing sessions will take place on:

• 4th July, NPCD at 3.45 - 4.45 pm
• 6h July, WNPDC at 3.45 - 4.45 pm

For more information and to make a booking : www.educatorsolutions.org.uk or call 01603 307710

Contact the MAAS for additional information or further support 01603 307766 or cs.maas@educatorsolutions.org.uk