Social distancing, year group bubbles, staggered pick-up, and drop-offs. It’s been an unusual Back to School, to say the least! But the challenge and concern around getting back into routines safely now come with the added pressures of ‘catch-up’ learning and targeted support. With the EAL attainment gap already widening between pupils and their native-speaking peers, as reported by the Education Policy Institute last month, now more than ever it is crucial to get the support right.
We look at what the research by EPI is telling us about EAL attainment, as well as the DfE’s English Proficiency of EAL pupils report from February, and how the effects of lockdown will exacerbate the findings.
The attainment gap has stopped closing for the first time in a decade, and the stalling of the gap occurred before the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the education system. The report examines the gap at a local level, across school subjects and among different pupils, including those classified as EAL.
Research shows the gap has widened significantly over the last decade for pupils with EAL arriving late in primary and secondary school. At the end of primary school, late arrivals are staggeringly 15.5 months behind native English speakers; at secondary, they are 20.7 months behind. The gap is particularly large for Gypsy/Roma pupils, who are nearly three years behind by the end of secondary school. [You can read more about supporting Roma pupils effectively in another blog post here.]
The stage at which EAL pupils enter the English education system is key; the later they enter, the more disadvantaged they are, due to their proficiency in the English language.
Research by the DfE released earlier this year shows how EAL proficiency significantly affects attainment across the curriculum. Between Spring ‘17 and Spring ‘18, 77% of pupils assessed stayed at the same proficiency band and 18% of EAL pupils went down a grade between primary and secondary.
On average, it takes pupils 7.30 years in English schooling to achieve fluency and 5.8 years to be competent. Based on this research, pupils are far off reaching the attainment of their native-speaking peers.
School closures have had a huge impact on pupils with EAL, especially late arrivals & learners with low levels of proficiency. With limited or no access to sufficient models of English, and fewer opportunities to engage with the language socially, EAL attainment is now likely to be even further behind than what was reported by EPI researchers and the DfE.
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