[eal-bilingual] Testing of EAL pupils

I am the cluster specialist teacher for EAL. As such, I have responsibility  
to support a number of secondary(and primary) schools in their work with EAL  
pupils.  New arrivals are assessed in different ways in different  schools.  
Some schools will carry out verbal/non-verbal/maths tests and  place according 
to the results.  Some have the facility to do holistic  assessment in 
maths/literacy including first language and place according to  this assessment.  But 
there is no comprehensive answer to this question,  compouded in this area 
which still has grammar & high school intake.
Una