EAL Awareness & Support

An Introduction To EAL In The North East:

Across the region, trainee teachers encounter very different linguistic landscapes. In parts of Newcastle upon Tyne, schools may include large numbers of pupils with English as an additional language, while in other areas such as County Durham and parts of Northumberland multilingual learners may be few. Overall, the North East is lower than the national average for pupils speaking EAL.

• North East (schools): Primary 17.1% and Secondary 14.9% recorded as EAL (DfE school census data).

• Newcastle (schools): Primary 28.7% and Secondary 23.8% recorded as EAL (DfE school census data).

• County Durham (schools): 3.4% recorded as EAL (local authority table reported in a recent national EAL analysis).

Key National Insights From The Bell Foundation Research:

The Bell Foundation’s ongoing research in partnership with the University of Oxford highlights that multilingual classrooms are now the norm across England, and that understanding language development is essential for effective teaching.

• Over one in five schoolchildren in England now speak English as an additional language, and the number has more than tripled since the late 1990s.

• Two-thirds of schools now have at least 5 per cent of pupils recorded as EAL.

• Proficiency in English, not merely EAL status, is the strongest predictor of educational achievement. It explains four to six times more variation in attainment than factors such as ethnicity, gender or free school meals combined.

• EAL pupils who arrive later in the English school system and have limited English on arrival face a significant attainment gap compared with peers.

These findings underline why trainees need to understand language progression and proficiency, not just labels, and why teaching and assessment must be tailored to language development.

Newcastle & Durham University's ITT Programme:

Our EAL programme equips trainees with the knowledge and tools to plan, teach and assess meaningfully across this range of contexts, ensuring all pupils can succeed.

The sessions focus on:

• understanding what EAL status means and what it doesn’t

• recognising how English proficiency shapes access to the curriculum

• planning high-challenge, high-support lessons

• linking practice to research and evidence

Kenton School, part of the Northern Leadership Trust, has one of the most diverse student populations in the north east, with 33% of pupils speaking English as an Additional Language, covering some 25 different languages from Years 7 - 13.

Our trainees are supported in their understanding of the breadth and depth of provision at Kenton high School, and in developing and understanding the impact of a range of essential classroom strategies to support all learners, particularly those with EAL.

Our day includes the following activities, all supervised by trained, expert school staff, including senior leaders, teachers and the EAL intervention team:

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