We are a team of school improvement specialists, consultants and leaders in the fields of academic literacy, English as an additional language and ethnic minority achievement.
The performance of EAL pupils at Key Stage 2 in 2019: the headlines
The national Key Stage 2 data released in December have much to tell us about the performance of EAL pupils across England and the expectations we might have for our...
- Graham Smith
- 13th January 2020
Can an online EAL course really make a difference in your classroom?
You’ve got EAL pupils in your classroom. Some are newly arrived and have little or no English. Some are fairly advanced and need regular support. In some cases you aren’t...
- Graham Smith
- 29th November 2019
EAL CPD: what, where, when, who and how?
This article first appeared in a slightly shorter version in EAL Journal Autumn 2019. How it works This is how the best CPD works. A Senior Leadership Team invites you...
- Graham Smith
- 25th November 2019
Congratulations to Norwood Green Infant and Nursery School on achieving the Gold EAL Quality Mark
The corridor displays in Norwood Green Infant and Nursery School are designed not only to represent some of the ‘exciting writing’ themes the children have explored, but also to provide...
- Graham Smith
- 28th October 2019
A review of Second Language Learners in International Schools
Maurice Carder with Patricia Mertin and Sarah Porter (2018) Second Language Learners in International Schools UCL Institute of Education Press Maurice Carder is a hugely distinguished figure in our profession. ...
- Graham Smith
- 14th October 2019
Second Suffolk school gets Gold EAL Award
Whitehouse Primary school in Ipswich follows Handford Hall in becoming the second Suffolk primary school to receive the EAL Quality Mark Gold Award. These two wonderful schools are, however, very...
- Graham Smith
- 7th October 2019
Making sense of the 2019 school census EAL data
First of all, there has to be a health warning. EAL census data is harder to make sense of now than it used to be. In 2018 for the first...
- Graham Smith
- 18th September 2019
Suffolk gets its first Gold EAL Quality Mark
A small three bedroom house in Sirdar Street in Ipswich costs around £130,000, which is way beyond the means of most of the residents. A family arriving from Eastern Europe...
- Graham Smith
- 2nd September 2019
Gold EAL Quality Mark Awarded to Featherstone Primary School
At Featherstone Primary and Nursery School in West London, the overwhelming majority of the pupils (some 95%) use a language other than English in their daily lives. The largest language...
- Graham Smith
- 9th July 2019