Five key areas for effective EAL inclusion

How EAL inclusion works in everyday school life

In our webinar, Leading with language: a whole-school approach to EAL learners’ wellbeing and belonging, Lukasz Mlodziniak and Helen Williams shared practical insights into what EAL inclusion looks like when it’s embedded in daily practice.  

They discussed the importance of clear leadership vision, how correct pronunciation of students’ names contributes to inclusive classrooms and how extracurricular activities can support integrated, supportive learning environments for students. Sustainable EAL provision that helps multilingual learners feel included is built through systems, routines and relationships and, crucially, consistency.

We’ve identified five key areas they covered where you can put your strategy into action.

1) Leadership vision

Whole-school EAL inclusion begins with leaders, with strategy needing to be visible in daily-decision making. This looks like:

• A clear, shared EAL vision across the school or trust
• Consistent approaches to identification, assessment and communication
• Ongoing CPD that keeps language and inclusion on everyone’s radar
• Processes that include staff, student and parent voices

When the expectation is set that EAL is everyone’s responsibility and that the inclusion of multilingual learners isn’t sat with one person, it can be embedded across classrooms and the school community, shaping behaviour and providing a safe and inclusive environment for learners.

2) Inclusive classrooms

EAL inclusion is built through small, repeatable classroom practices that lower barriers and build learners’ confidence. This might include:

• Taking care to pronounce students’ names correctly
• Normalising the use of home languages to process complex ideas
• Making language and meaning visible through visuals and modelling
• Pre-teaching key vocabulary so learners can access lessons with confidence

When inclusion is seen as something that happens everywhere in the school environment, EAL learners have more opportunities for connection, communication and belonging.

3) Culture and peers

Some of the most powerful language development can take place outside of formal teaching, in natural settings such as:

• Extracurricular activities offering low-pressure, language-rich spaces
• Peer relationships that support informal language use
• Student-led cultural events that reflect real voices and lived experience
• Simple daily interactions that help learners feel known and valued

Carhill-Poza‘s study study found that bilingual peers who collaborated on tasks with participants played a greater role than individual factors such as age and gender in shaping their English language proficiencyPeer relationships play a significant role in shaping the school experience for multilingual learners. When EAL inclusion is seen as a priority everywhere in school life, learners gain more opportunities to connect, communicate and belong.

4) Working with families

How schools communicate with parents and carers is crucial to EAL inclusion. This includes:

• Clear, accessible communication from the point of admission
• Thoughtful use of interpreters or translation tools
• Consistent points of contact for families
• Involving parents in celebrations, milestones and school life

When families feel informed, welcomed and heard, multilingual learners feel safer and more secure in their school community.

5) Understanding why it matters

Long-term outcomes for EAL learners are shaped by their everyday experiences. Strand and Hessel found that proficiency in English explains up to 22% variation in EAL pupils’ academic achievement, highlighting the crucial role good EAL strategy can play in the learner journey. Equity in schools: Why the UK’s EAL challenge is the next big equity issue unpacks the link between inclusion and belonging and its profound impact upon:

• Long-term life outcomes
• Language acquisition
• Confidence
• Wellbeing 

Setting the foundation for good practice in EAL inclusion now has lifelong and far-reaching consequences that extend far beyond the classroom, shaping positive futures for your multilingual learners such as in health, housing and future employment.

If you’re looking to turn your EAL inclusion strategy into practical, whole-school action, join our next webinar  for knowledge, tools and next steps you can start using today.