Language Support Posts
Combined General Allocation Model (GAM) and EAL (Language Support)
2013/2014 School Year
In February 2013 the DES issued Circular 0013/2013 Staffing Arrangements in Primary Schools for the 2013/14 School Year. The arrangements for posts are the same as last year (as per circular 07/2012). Schools that were allocated a permanent language support post(s) in the 2012/13 school year will retain this post(s) for the 2013/14 school year. The relevant schools are listed in in Appendix C of the circular.
Appeals Process
Please note that the threshold to appeal for EAL support has been reduced to at least 20% of school’s total enrolment being made up of pupils that require EAL support (pupils with less than B1 (Level3) proficiency).
See Section 4 of circular 13/2013 for further information.
2012/2013 School Year
In February 2012 the DES issued Circular 007/2012 Staffing Arrangements in Primary Schools for the 2012/13 School Year. Please refer to the circular for further details on the revised allocation of EAL support to all schools for the school year 2012/2013. The General Allocation Model of support to schools has been adjusted to combine general allocation and language support into a single and simplified allocation for all primary schools.
Appendix C lists the combined GAM/EAL allocation for schools. It was based on the number of mainstream classroom posts in schools in the 2011/2012 school year.
| School type | Allocation per mainstream classroom teaching post |
| All-boys school | 5 hrs per week (0.2 of a post) |
| Mixed school | 5 hrs per week (0.2 of a post) |
| All-girls school | 4 hrs per week (0.16 of a post)* |
* rounded up/down, to the nearest 0.2 of a post to facilitate clustering into full-time (25 hour) posts
Under the original GAM arrangements at least 30% of the enrolments had to be boys for a school to be regarded as a mixed school. Under the revised model this threshold is reduced to 25% based on the enrolment figures of September 2010.
Additional allocations for schools with high concentrations of pupils that require language support
A permanent allocation of over 370 posts have been allocated to schools with high concentrations of pupils that require language support using the following criteria:
|
Current allocation of languagesupport posts (2011/2012) |
Allocation of language support posts for 2012/13 |
| 2 temporary posts | 1 permanent post |
| 3 temporary posts | 2 permanent posts |
| 4 temporary posts | 3 permanent posts |
| 5 or 6 temporary posts | 4 permanent posts |
The list of the schools with these posts is set out in Appendix C.
Where appropriate, junior and senior schools with a high concentration of pupils requiring language support may be considered jointly for the purposes of the allocation of these permanent posts.
Updated 23 August 2013