Department of Education Inspectorate publishes findings from school inspections of English as an Additional Language

The Inspectorate of the Department of Education today published a thematic report on provision for English as an Additional Language (EAL) in primary and post-primary schools. This is the second report in a series of three reports focusing on inclusion, participation and engagement of children and young people in primary and post-primary schools. The first report, The Quality of Education for Children and Young People from Ukraine, was published on Thursday 15 February 2024. The third report in the series, Summer Programme 2023: Building Confidence and Connections, will be published shortly.

The second report, Additional Language Needs - Whole-school and Classroom Approaches for Inclusive Language Learning: Findings from Primary and Post-primary school inspections of English as an Additional Language, published today shows that while there are many strengths in provision for children and young people learning English as an additional language there are also important areas for improvement.

The report is based on 83 inspections conducted in 47 primary schools and 36 post-primary schools in September and October 2023. The inspections focused on key areas that all children and young people learning English as an Additional Language require in order to receive the best possible education in our schools. These include:

Creating a welcoming and inclusive environment: Over half of the schools had good or very good systems in place to celebrate the diversity of their communities. The systems were less than satisfactory in over one-fifth of schools.

Assessing language needs: Assessment is a critically important first-step in teaching and learning; just over half of the schools had good or very good practices in place to assess language needs. Assessment of language needs was not satisfactory in almost a quarter of schools.

Teaching and learning: Teachers need to use specific teaching approaches so that all children and young people learning EAL can reach their potential. This report shows that while teaching and learning was good or very good in almost 60% of schools inspected; it was less than satisfactory in almost one-fifth of schools.

The inspections also evaluated other important areas including how schools used the additional teaching resources they received from the Department for EAL provision, the support schools accessed from the professional support services and EAL provision in Irish-medium schools.

Recommendations: The report emphasises the importance of a positive and inclusive school culture, which promotes the wellbeing of all children and young people, and effective communication channels. It found a need for improved whole-school structures to support provision for EAL, and to embed provision for EAL within the Continuum of Support framework. To enhance EAL learning outcomes, it stresses the importance of appropriate assessment approaches and effective teaching approaches.

The main recommendations included:

• Mainstream and subject teachers should use a greater variety of teaching approaches to reinforce key subject-specific language and teachers in support roles should plan interventions directly linked to the curriculum and aligned with the child or young person's language targets.

• Improvements are required in assessment practices including target-setting processes and teaching and learning approaches for EAL in mainstream and support classes.

• Relevant stakeholders, including the NCCA, the Education Research Centre (ERC), Oide, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) and school and system leaders should continue to build greater system capacity in the area of assessment.

• The Cosán Action Plan provides an excellent framework for resourcing teacher professional learning and building the capacity of teachers to lead classroom learning and to take on new approaches to support children and young people's learning.

• All education partners should promote the system-wide implementation of the Cosán Action Plan by 2027.

Publishing the report, the Chief Inspector, Yvonne Keating, said

'This report acknowledges that many schools that have created welcoming and inclusive environments and use assessment, teaching and learning approaches designed to ensure that children and young people learning English as an additional language receive the best possible education. The report also shows that there is a significant minority of schools where improvement is required across all the areas on which these inspections focused.'

The Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD said:

"I welcome the publication of this report. I see effective provision for children and young people learning English as an additional language as central to ensuring equity of opportunity in education and to the promotion of wellbeing. I am particularly pleased, that this report highlights that many schools celebrate the diversity of their community and work hard to ensure that all children and young people feel a sense of connection and belonging to their school. I also welcome the recommendations of the report which are designed to bring about improvements at school and at system level. My officials and I will use this report to further support all schools to provide high-quality learning experiences that meet the needs of all children and young people.'

The full report is available at here

For further information please email [email protected].

ENDS

Further information on the composite inspection report

Who are children and young people for whom English is an additional language (EAL)?

As Ireland is a multi-cultural country, many of our schools have children and young people whose mother tongue is neither English nor Irish. These children and young people are learning English as an additional language.

Children and young people for whom English is an additional language bring rich opportunities for diverse learning opportunities to classrooms - opportunities that benefit all children and young people. They also require particular assessment, teaching and learning approaches to develop their language skills and, at the same time, to progress through the curriculum and reach their full potential. Effective provision for children and young people for whom English is an additional language is central to ensuring equity of opportunity in education and supporting every child and young person to achieve to their fullest potential.

What did the inspections focus on?

The inspections focused on the following main aspects of provision:

o Assessment and target setting for children and young people learning English as an additional language

o The quality of teaching and learning in mainstream and support settings

o Use of resources to support children and young people learning English as an additional language.

Why is assessment important?

Effective assessment is the critical first step in deciding on the most appropriate interventions to support children and young people in progressing to the next stage of language acquisition. Schools are expected to assess the English language proficiency of children and young people for whom English is an additional language using assessments aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages.

Why is target-setting important?

Effective target setting provides teachers, children, young people and their parents with goals for improving language skills. Equally, ineffective targets may impede progress in language acquisition. Following assessment, the CEFR framework enables teachers to set targets to support the pupil/student to move to the next level of language proficiency and to enable them to access the curriculum more effectively. Schools should record targets in the Student Support Plan and should share them with the child or young person and their parents.

Why is support for home languages important?

Effective practice for children and young people learning English as an additional language requires schools to acknowledge and foster the home languages of all pupils/students. By using and maintaining the home language, they can better access and understand academic content appropriate to their age and stage of development in the second language. Maintaining the home language also serves to recognise and support their identity and sense of self, which is an important contributor to overall wellbeing.

Support for home languages leads to better educational outcomes for the children and young people and it impacts positively on their wellbeing.

What are effective teaching approaches for children and young people for whom English is an additional language?

Best practice approaches in the teaching and learning of EAL encourage mainstream teachers to support children and young people to develop two particular forms of language: language for everyday social interactions, and the specific language required to access the curriculum. The former is best achieved by ensuring that children and young people have well-planned opportunities to interact with fluent speakers of English. Teachers can develop the latter by explicitly teaching the language of the subject, such as the key words required in each lesson and the skills of language learning. Mainstream teachers can also work co-operatively and effectively with the EAL support teacher and special education teachers through practices such as team teaching.

Support settings are settings where children and young people engage in learning activities outside of the mainstream class, either individually with a teacher or in small groups with other pupils/students and a teacher. Effective teaching for children and young people learning EAL in support lessons involves careful consideration of the assessed priority learning needs and the targets identified for the pupils/students in the support class. Teachers in support settings have important opportunities to reinforce the development of the two distinct aspects of language: the language for everyday social interactions and the specific language required to access the curriculum.

Report on The Quality of Education for Children and Young People from Ukraine

What were the findings of the report on the quality of education for children and young people from Ukraine?

The inspections found many strengths in the education provision for children and young people from Ukraine:

• Teaching and learning experiences of children and young people from Ukraine were either good or very good in over three-quarters of the seventy-eight schools.

• Almost all schools had specific measures in place to include children and young people and their parents in the school community.

• Almost all of the primary and post-primary schools placed children and young people from Ukraine in age-appropriate classes. This is a very positive finding as the placement of children and young people from Ukraine in age-appropriate classes is central to their effective inclusion in school life.

• In over seventy percent of schools all young people from Ukraine in third year and in sixth year intended to sit the Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate examinations.

The inspections highlighted three specific issues that need to be addressed in order to increase the participation and engagement of Ukrainian children and young people in primary and post-primary schools. These are:

• Additional encouragement to parents of pre-school children from Ukraine to access Early Learning and Care (ELC) provision

• Careful monitoring of the school attendance of children and young people from Ukraine and taking action to improve attendance when this is required

• Provision of accurate, accessible and clear information on progression pathways and funding support for Ukrainian young people who wish to engage in further study and/or progress to the world of work

You can access the report on the quality of education for children and young people from Ukraine here