23rd January 2015 4-6.30 Kings College London
The event launched ‘The National audit of English as an additional language training and development provision report 2014’ the purpose of this launch was informing policy and improve practice to benefit children with English as an additional language, this audit provides an up-to-date overview of current EAL training and professional development provision.
According to the National Curriculum 2014 teachers are expected to take account of pupils whose first language is not English, and should plan their teaching so that it develops their English. Yet the second audit by NALDIC of EAL training and development provision for teachers and a British Council audit of EAL provision at schools nationally reveal that opportunities are still limited for teacher development in this area.
The Chair for the event was Diana Sutton, Director of The Bell Foundation which delivers a five year programme on EAL. The NALDIC audit was presented by Nicola Davies, EAL Consultant and The British Council audit by Catharine Driver, EAL Nexus Senior Adviser, British Council. Mark Sims, Ofsted, responded to the audits.
Rukhsana Yaqoob, President of the MTA attended this event and contributed to the discussion of how the provision for EAL pupils needs to be improved and to be more consistent throughout the country.