How is current government guidance informing educators’ practice?

The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement (QCA, 1999: 32), a legal requirement, informed educators that across the curriculum they must provide effective learning opportunities for all learners, based on the following three principles:

■ setting suitable learning challenges;

■ responding to pupils’ diverse needs;

■ overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.

The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (DfES, 2001a) gave clear guidance earlier, ‘Identification, Assessment and Provision in the Primary Phase’, about what educators need to consider when deciding if learners with EAL have special educational needs or not. It clearly states that lack of competence in English should not immediately be equated with a learning difficulty, but that if progress is not what is expected, then, equally, a learner’s language status should not be assumed to be the only reason:

Schools should look carefully at all aspects of a child’s performance in different subjects to establish whether the problems they have in the classroom are due to limitations in their command of the language that is used there or arise from special educational needs. (ibid.: 46, 5:16)

Further guidance is given about what issues educators should consider when thinking about this question: ‘It is necessary to consider the child within the context of their home, culture and community’ (ibid.: 46, 5:15). The possible need to plan language support is also discussed: ‘At an early stage a full assessment should be made of the exposure they have had in the past to each of the languages they speak, the use they make of them currently and their proficiency in them’ (ibid.: 46, 5:16).

The Green Paper, Every Child Matters (HMSO, 2003: 28) mentions the need to improve the attainment of minority ethnic pupils, and recognizes that the development of strategies to support bilingual learners is a vital part of this. Also of significance is the consultation paper Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils (DfES, 2003a). It is in this paper that educators are provided with evidence and guidance about how the government believe teachers should be including bilingual/EAL learners in their schools. Additionally, the government proposed the development of an EAL strand of the Aiming High national strategy which will include:

■ training and support for mainstream staff;

■ training and support for EAL specialist staff;

■ assessment – a national approach;

■ meeting the needs of more advanced learners of English. (ibid.: 29–30)

It also emphasises findings from earlier studies carried out by proponents of bilingual education. For example, it says in that bilingual learners may demonstrate high standards of achievement, particularly in subjects such as mathematics and other practical subjects, before fluency in English is achieved. Later it also states that EAL specialists generally agree that bilingual learners most effectively learn English in a mainstream situation where they ‘are supported in acquiring English across the whole curriculum alongside English-speaking pupils’ (ibid.: 3.9:29). Importantly, it also emphasises the need to support the continual development of a bilingual learner’s first language, because it supports the learning of English and wider cognitive development (ibid.: 3.12:30). Strategies to support this learning are also briefly mentioned and will be covered more fully later.

Finally, in October 2003, following the collation of the consultation findings, the outline of the government’s plan was presented as The Aiming High national strategy. Included in this plan is:

■ training for primary teachers across 21 LEAs through the National Primary Strategy to help them better support bilingual pupils;

■ the development of a national framework to support bilingual learners, including a national specialist qualification for teachers who work with

bilingual pupils to recognize their expertise and progression routes. (www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ethnicminorities/raising)