Language Support Posts
Combining General Allocation Model (GAM) and EAL (Language Support)
In February 2012 the DES issued Circular 0007/2012 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 is based on the number of mainstream classroom posts in schools in the current (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.
Appeal Process
Further additional temporary language support will also be provided, as necessary, to the schools referred to above or any other schools that will have high concentrations of pupils (20%, previously 25%) that require language support in the 2012/13 school year.
These allocations will be made on the basis of appeals by any of these schools to the Staffing Appeals Board (see Section 4) of the Appendix.
It is proposed that the first meeting of the Staffing Appeal Board to deal with appeals for the 2012/13 school year will be held in April 2012. Further meetings will be held as required in June and October 2012.
The closing date for submission of staffing appeals for the initial meeting is Friday 23rd March 2012.