SEALCC Toolkit: Evidence of Good Practice in Supporting Bilingual Learners

In 2006 Learning in 2(+) Languages and How Good is Our School – Inclusion and Equality, Part 4:  Evaluating educational provision for bilingual learners (EEPBL) were written to support schools with bilingual learners. They aided policy development for schools and local authorities.  In 2007 How Good is Our School 3 (HGIOS 3) was published. 

The Scottish English as an Additional Language Co-ordinating Council (SEALCC) is a national body made up of  managers and teachers from EAL services in all authorities in Scotland .  They met in May 2007 to take a closer look at these documents.

A full council meeting of almost 50 EAL practitioners examined the Quality Indicators in EEPBL, cross referenced with those from HGIOS 3, with a view to developing a document to show evidence of good practice.  A small editing group developed the outcomes of the meeting into this document.  

How to use this document. 

This document should be used as a self evaluation tool by teachers, schools, and local authority managers.  It should be used in conjunction with EEBPL and HGIOS3. 

Each section relates to one Quality Indicator (QI) from EEPBL with reference to the relevant QI from HGIOS3.  In the column headed Good Practice, each theme from the QI is examined more closely and examples of good practice are outlined.  In the column headed Evidence – Paperwork, suggestions for appropriate evidence are outlined.  Obviously a considerable amount of evidence will come from the pupils themselves, from what they say and what they do.  However these suggestions of other forms of evidence may be helpful.