9 August 2025
We welcome the fact that Ofsted’s new state-funded schools inspection toolkit takes a meaningful step towards recognising the needs of learners who use English as an Additional Language (EAL), who now represent over 1.77 million pupils in England (over one in five learners in state-funded schools).
The long-overdue re-introduction of a dedicated section in the toolkit on EAL in the Curriculum and teaching evaluation area rightly highlights the importance of assessing English language proficiency and offers practical, tried and tested strategies to accelerate language development within diverse, multilingual, integrated classrooms. Schools looking to assess and address the needs of their learners can do so by using tools such as The Bell Foundation’s free EAL Assessment Framework for Schools.
Investment in inspector training and quality assurance is good progress and we call on Ofsted to ensure EAL-specific training is part of this package, given over 21% of pupils in England use EAL.
As these new developments are rolled out to upcoming school inspections, we also urge Ofsted to consider:
- Extending recommendations beyond just those learners who are new to English, as academic language development is ongoing;
- Making EAL more explicit in broader inclusion guidance;
- Improving accessibility for parents and caregivers even more (e.g. by adding translation tools to report cards).