Punam Bhasin punam.bhasin at Bracknell-Forest.gov.uk
Mon Jun 11 11:56:56 BST 2007

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I agree. We have many late arrivals in Year 10 and Year 11 who struggle
with English GCSEs. They are more likely to leave school without a GCSE
in English if an EAL option were not
available.

Again schools have large populations of bilingual children who do very
well at GCSE English - a two tier system would not be a threat as such -
however it would be a big step forward for early learners.

Punam Bhasin

Advisory Teacher EAL and Diversity
Bracknell Forest Education Centre
Easthampstead Park
Peacock Lane
Wokingham RG40 3DF
Tel: 0118 9366431



>>> "Nicola Davies" <ndavies00 at hotmail.com> 11/06/2007 11:35 >>>
There may well be another perspective on this which is around how well
the 
current GCSE English and other non GCSE exams reflect the task that
students 
at earlier stages of EAL undertake when they join English schools ie 
learning English across curriculum content. Surely there is also a
point too 
about equity.  Students at earlier stages of learning English are at a

disadvantage in GCSEs because they are conducted through English
medium.( 
see 
http://www.naldic.org.uk/docs/news/archive/news_item.cfm?newsid=186&Pp=1)

Their attainment may also be capped by decisions around entry tiers
made 
some time in advance of the examinations themselves.  Additionally,
although 
other EFL/EAL type exams exist, my experience is that some schools are

better than others in knowing about these and in supporting students to
gain 
them. And for the individual student, having a qualification which
fairly 
recognises the gains they have made in their learning, and is
recognised by 
others as such, strikes me as worth thinking about.
Nicola 



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