The British International School of Ljubljana has been rated ‘Exemplary’ in our Bell Foundation Accreditation for EAL (English as an Additional Language) provision.
At BISL over 90% of our students have English as an additional language and between 15-20% are on the EAL programme and receive personalised support. As an 'Outstanding' school, we are proud of our high-quality English provision across the school in every classroom, for every learner.
I am very proud of our wonderful EAL provision at the British International School of Ljubljana, the care, detail and personalised approach to each and every single student in our school. Our team working together provides rich opportunities for our students to grow in confidence and make outstanding progress with their acquisition, speech emergence and overall English language development. We are lucky to have such amazing students, staff and supportive parents at BISL to enable us to attain yet another remarkable achievement. Well done to everyone involved!
The Bell Foundation is a charity which aims to overcome exclusion through language education by working with partners on innovation, research, training and practical interventions. It accredits regional Centres of Expertise in the UK to build sustainable provision for learners who use English as an Additional Language (EAL) and offers Language for Results International, a high-quality suite of training, tools, resources and accreditation for international schools underpinned by the latest research and designed with learner impact at the forefront.
The British International School of Ljubljana, part of the Orbital Education group of international schools, resolved to start the application process for ALFRI accreditation in September, 2021. After an initial meeting with the assessors, where the school's current policies and practices were briefly discussed against each of the assessment criteria, it was mutually agreed that the school was ready to proceed with the submission of evidence.
Final Outcome
The report concludes that the school meets the accreditation criteria and will be accredited for the quality of its EAL provision for three years.
Summary of Findings
The criteria for all seven dimensions have been met, with the following highlights.
Strengths
- The school has a distinctive ethos and values which drive all policies and practices and the implementation of a whole-school approach to EAL.
- The strong EAL policy is operationalised by an effective team.
- Prioritisation of EAL as one of the eight learning and teaching fundamentals is evident in the CPD programme, which achieves transferability of EAL strategies into the practice of teachers and TAs across the school for the benefit of pupils using EAL.
- The leadership team ensures that the students achieve well through effective assessment, quality assurance, follow-through of implementation and evaluation.
- The curriculum meets the needs of all learners, and learning of pupils using EAL is effectively supported.
Tobija SiterHead of EALThis fantastic accomplishment gives credit to the exemplary EAL provision at BISL, reflected in the excellent academic and social achievements of our students on their educational journey. Having gone through this accreditation has helped us to reflect on our outstanding practices and areas to further develop in the future.
Areas for consideration
Overall, the submission would have benefited from explanation beyond titles, as in some cases the evidence provided needed some narrative explanation to help the assessors understand the links between the examples provided and how these evidenced specific criteria.
EAL at BISL
In the report, BISL was commended on the following points:
- that students using EAL with a range of learning needs successfully access the curriculum;
- that students make excellent progress in their proficiency in English as well as in curriculum learning, with some increasing two EAL tiers in the course of an academic year;
- the students using EAL achieve outstanding results, well above the UK average.
BISL Progress Test in English results over the years.
The EAL provision at BISL strives to guide students through their English language learning journey, by providing the opportunity for excellence, challenging our students, and tailoring the teaching and learning processes to meet the needs of each individual. Our results indicate that when we fuse the structures and systems we have in place with our passion for the English language and learning, we are able to reduce the barriers of our language learners and aid their access to mainstream education with success.
Whatever the level of support required, our EAL specialists work together with students, parents and their teachers to ensure the programme of study is relevant to the demands of the curriculum and the student’s own personal needs.
Find out more about our EAL provision by clicking on the link below.
