A beginner’s guide to setting up an EAL department
Start by understanding your school, its multilingual learners and the support already in place. Then build a small set of reliable routines that connect admissions, teaching, assessment, family partnership and review. The structure should fit the school’s context and grow from evidence.
Your first 90 days
Learn, establish, then refine
Use these phases as a flexible guide. Work with senior leaders and colleagues to identify urgent needs first; local policy, available capacity and immediate needs will shape the pace.
Review enrolment patterns, languages, prior schooling, transitions and current support needs.
Map staffing, timetables, referral routes, teaching resources and existing communication routines.
Check school priorities and local requirements for admissions, safeguarding, assessment, data access and referrals.
Identify urgent access barriers and what is already working well.
Days 31–60 · Establish
Agree dependable routines
Set a clear admissions conversation and baseline process across listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Create a concise learner profile that records strengths, context, evidence, access needs and the learner’s perspective.
Agree how teachers request support, how priorities are set and who follows up.
Protect time for EAL and subject teachers to plan, teach and review together.
Set shared expectations for family communication, interpretation and secure information handling.
Days 61–90 · Refine
Review impact and plan ahead
Review a small sample of learner profiles, study plans and classroom work with the teaching team.
Check that support matches current curriculum demands and builds independence.
Agree fair, staged progression reviews, including partial release and a route back to support when needed.
Ask students and families what is clear, useful or missing from the current provision.
Choose a few achievable priorities for the next term, with a lead person and review date.
Build the foundations
Six areas to organise
1. Purpose and leadership
Agree what the department is responsible for, how it works with subject teams and inclusion, what decisions need senior oversight and how priorities will be reviewed.
2. Learner journey
Make the route from admission to baseline, targeted teaching, classroom access and progression understandable to staff, learners and families.
3. Teaching and access
Connect language goals to real subject tasks. Balance specialist teaching, in-class support, co-planning and staff guidance around the learners’ needs.
4. Evidence and decisions
Use several sources of evidence, describe language skills separately and record uncertainty. Keep placement and exit decisions staged, reviewed and reversible.
5. People and capacity
Clarify roles, induction, timetable responsibilities and communication routes. Identify the professional learning teachers need and make it practical for their subjects.
6. Partnership and communication
Build student voice into planning, make updates accessible across home languages and agree how families can share context and ask questions.
Keep the department manageable
Start with a small number of routines that staff can sustain. Collect only information that supports teaching or a decision; review whether each process improves access, participation, progress or learner confidence.
