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SUMMARY:English as an Additional Language and educational achievement in E
 ngland: Understanding the evidence beyond aggregate statistics
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T140000
DTSTAMP:20260601T002847Z
UID:8c593506-083f-f111-88b4-6045bdd2201e
CREATED:20260423T113157Z
DESCRIPTION:Pupils recorded as speaking English as an Additional Language 
 (EAL) now make up over one in five of the school population in England\, a
 nd more schools over a broader range of local areas in England have pupils
  speaking EAL than was the case a decade ago. On average\, these pupils pe
 rform as well as—or in some cases better than—their monolingual Englis
 h-speaking peers by the end of compulsory schooling. However\, these aggre
 gate statistics mask substantial variation within the EAL group and obscur
 e important differences in individual circumstances and support needs. \nD
 rawing on analysis of individual-pupil-level data from the National Pupil 
 Database\, this presentation considers educational attainment among pupils
  speaking EAL at key stages of compulsory education in England (at ages 5\
 , 7\, 11\, and 16 years)\, with particular attention to the effect of pupi
 ls’ year of entry into the English school system. Although pupils who en
 ter in Reception "catch up" with monolingual English (MLE)-speaking peers 
 by the end of primary school\, pupils who enter in year 1 or later are at 
 an educational disadvantage increasing with later entry. The same is true 
 for secondary school\, where pupils who entered the education system in ye
 ar 5 "catch up" by the end of secondary school\, those who enter later are
  at increasing educational disadvantage with later entry. Findings also hi
 ghlight the limitations of the EAL flag in the NPD as a proxy for language
  proficiency or language support needs\, where pupils speaking EAL might b
 e fully bilingual and fluent in English\, new to English\, or anywhere in-
 between.\nTaken together\, the findings point to the importance of conside
 ring proficiency in English (or a reasonable proxy for it via year of entr
 y) and the nature and duration of support provided to pupils speaking EAL.
  It is well established in this and other research that it takes\, on aver
 age\, at least 6 years for pupils who are new to English to gain the acade
 mic proficiency in English necessary to fully access the curriculum in sch
 ools where English is the language of instruction\, and the current way in
  which EAL support is funded (via a fixed allocation of funding for three 
 years after a pupil joins the school system) is therefore not sufficient t
 o help later arrivals to close achievement gaps. We will end by discussing
  implications for policy and practice in England\, particularly around fun
 ding structures\, assessment and targeting of support\, and teacher profes
 sional development.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260423T113735Z
LOCATION:15 Norham Gardens - Seminar Room A\, Seminar Room A 15 Norham Gar
 dens  Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6PY United Kingdom
SPEAKER:Dr Ariel Lindorff (University of Oxford)
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