Starting a new secondary school can be daunting for anyone: new teachers, new systems and the challenge of re-establishing a sense of belonging.
Now amplify that experience by having to learn a new language, navigate a new culture and understand a new concept of what education looks like.
This is the reality faced by English as an additional language (EAL) pupils in many schools, including ours - Barr’s Hill School in Coventry - where 43 per cent of the cohort is EAL.
Going against the grain
The question for schools, then, is how do you accelerate language acquisition for newly arrived students while ensuring they feel part of the school community from day one?
One seemingly logical answer might be to withdraw students from mainstream lessons and provide extensive literacy and language interventions.
However, our experience over several years taking that approach led us to question whether this approach was unintentionally delaying belonging, limiting opportunities to learn language and making access to mainstream education exclusive rather than inclusive.
Furthermore, as we looked into research from organisations such as and the (IRC), we saw that the message was that new arrivals should spend as much time as possible in mainstream classrooms and should not be placed in lower sets simply because they are learning English.
Straight into mainstream
Starting in November 2024, we decided to take this new approach and began placing students straight into mainstream classes - and often into higher sets, too.
For example, key stage 3 students are placed in mixed-ability groups. Our teaching and learning model centres on knowing students well and adapting teaching so that everyone can access the curriculum.
Meanwhile, at KS4, while the challenge is greater, our guiding principle is to avoid placing EAL students in lower sets solely because of their English proficiency.
Instead, they learn alongside peers who model ambitious language, strong learning habits and positive attitudes. We have found this creates aspiration, raises expectations and accelerates social integration.
Of course, we still offer targeted literacy and language interventions, but these are short, focused and designed to complement, rather than replace, learning in mainstream lessons.
Training and development
Making this approach work required a whole-school commitment in which everyone had a responsibility to help.
This meant investing significantly in staff development and CPD to help staff understand the value of “belonging” to support students’ progress, as well as EAL-specific training from and the IRC’s .
Complementing this, every EAL student has a live profile that provides staff with important contextual information, current levels of English acquisition and practical strategies for classroom support, to which staff can continually contribute feedback.
We also provide an EAL adaptive teaching toolkit, designed to support Wave 1 teaching. Teachers routinely adapt resources, scaffolding and assessments so that students can access the same curriculum content as their peers.
It is common to see translations in slides, worksheets, books and assessments. Carefully planned talk activities and vocabulary-building opportunities help students acquire language through authentic curriculum experiences.
Importantly, this support is gradually removed as confidence and proficiency increase.
Beyond the classroom, inclusion is strengthened through buddies, enrichment activities, educational visits, multilingual support for families, the use of technology and our six-week “Bridging the Gap” programme.
Together, these are all threads in a tapestry designed to help students build brighter futures.
What impact has this had?
Anyone working within EAL provision knows that progress looks different for every student and success cannot be measured through a single lens.
What we can say with confidence is that our approach has improved attendance, reduced persistent absence and increased engagement with school and learning.
Students build stronger relationships with peers and staff, demonstrate more positive learning behaviours and develop a stronger sense of belonging.
The stories of individual students bring these outcomes to life.
Bringing stories to life
M arrived in Year 9 as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child with no English. Before we adopted this approach, he was placed in lower sets, frequently received sanctions and struggled to build relationships.
Once he accessed aspirational classroom environments, supported by appropriate scaffolding and language support, everything changed.
He built friendships, engaged in learning and began to see education differently. Today, he has secured a place at college to pursue a career in vehicle bodywork and mechanics.
A joined us from Palestine in Year 10 with no English. By the end of Year 10, he was achieving mainly U and grade 1 outcomes.
Fifteen months later, he achieved a grade 9 in Arabic, a grade 5 in history and grade 4s across English language, English literature, drama, maths and physics. His success demonstrates what is possible when language acquisition and curriculum access develop alongside one another, rather than in isolation.
He is now continuing with us to study English literature, history, and politics at A level.
Proficiency in English should not be a barrier to achievement. It is a hurdle, and that hurdle becomes smaller when schools adopt a genuinely collaborative and inclusive mindset. We never say, “They can’t”; we say, “They can, with our support.”
Lewis Smith is assistant headteacher and KS4/KS5 Senco, and Sabrina Mattu is an English teacher and SEND/EAL specialist practitioner - both at Barr’s Hill School in Coventry
