Ballakermeen - numbers of EAL and SEN pupils

Summary

A request for EAL and SEN pupil numbers, staff details, and budget for Ballakermeen High School was partially fulfilled, with specific roll and language data provided while EAL/SEN counts and budget figures were withheld due to unavailability.

Key Facts

• EAL and SEN pupil numbers for September 2024 and 2025 were not available at the time of response.
• The school does not record nationality but collects first language data for non-English speakers.
• There is one full-time dedicated EAL Principal Education Support Officer (PESO) at the school.
• Four supply EAL assistants support the school on a one-day-per-week basis.
• The EAL support team serves approximately 40 students.

Data Disclosed

• 74
• 37
• 29
• 14
• 11
• 10
• 9
• 7
• 6
• 40
• 2025-03-19
• 2025-04-16
• 4486949
• 4525889

Exemptions Cited

• Information not held by the school (nationality data)
• Information not available at the time of response (EAL/SEN counts)
• Redaction of figures for five or less pupils to protect privacy

Original Request

Please provide information on number of children with either English as Additional Language or Special Educational Needs on the school roll as at September 2024 and the most recently available data in 2025. details of the total school roll, number of tutors (and sixth form equivalent) and tutor/6th form class sizes as at September 2024 and most recently available 2025 data. details of the EAL different nationalities that the school currently supports (number of pupils of each nationality - where this is less than 3 can the information be grouped by region eg Other European, Other Middle East etc) number of dedicated Ballakermeen EAL and SEN teachers and other assistants and how many per pupil with these needs. Details of any DESC additional EAL and SEN direct support provided including number of staff and their hours per week. Annual budget allocated for EAL and SEN support

Data Tables (3)

Full Response Text

Policy, Strategy and Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian Foxdale Road St Johns IM4 3AS

Telephone: (01624) 685808 Website: www.gov.im/dec Email: dec@foi.gov.im

Our ref: 4525889 16th April 2025

Dear ###,

We write further to your request, received 19 March 2025, which states:

"Please provide

information on number of children with either English as Additional Language or Special Educational Needs on the school roll as at September 2024 and the most recently available data in 2025.

details of the total school roll, number of tutors (and sixth form equivalent) and tutor/6th form class sizes as at September 2024 and most recently available 2025 data.

details of the EAL different nationalities that the school currently supports (number of pupils of each nationality - where this is less than 3 can the information be grouped by region eg Other European, Other Middle East etc)

number of dedicated Ballakermeen EAL and SEN teachers and other assistants and how many per pupil with these needs.

Details of any DESC additional EAL and SEN direct support provided including number of staff and their hours per week.

Annual budget allocated for EAL and SEN support"

Our response to your request is as follows:

1. information on number of children with either English as Additional Language or Special Educational Needs on the school roll as at September 2024 and the most recently available data in 2025.

As per our email dated 16th April 2025, we apologise the information is not available at this time. The requested information will be provided to you as soon as possible after the Schools Easter Break.

By way of advice and assistance data relating to English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Special Educational Needs (SEN) was recently published in response to a Freedom of Information request and is available to view via the Isle of Man Government Disclosure Log, by searching case ID number 4486949.

Isle of Man Government Disclosure Log weblink - https://services.gov.im/freedom-of- information/search

1. details of the total school roll, number of tutors (and sixth form equivalent) and tutor/6th form class sizes as at September 2024 and most recently available 2025 data.

Please see appendix one for a copy of the information held.

1. details of the EAL different nationalities that the school currently supports (number of pupils of each nationality - where this is less than 3 can the information be grouped by region eg Other European, Other Middle East etc)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Ballakermeen High School do not hold the information that you have requested.

By way of advice and assistance, at Ballakermeen High School, nationality is not requested on the pupil’s administration form. Instead, the school collect information regarding the student’s first language, provided it is not English. Please see below the information held, the figures represent a breakdown based on first language.

First Language Number of pupils Tagalog/Filipino 74 Polish 37 Bulgarian 29 Chinese 14 Thai 11 Afrikaans 10 Shona 9 Romanian 7 Malay/Indonesian 6 Malayam 6 Spanish [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Urdu [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Tamil [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Portuguese [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Arabic [Redacted – Information relating to five

or less pupils] Hungarian [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Greek [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Other African [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Other Middle Eastern [Redacted – Information relating to five or less pupils] Other European 7 Other South East Asian 6

1. number of dedicated Ballakermeen EAL and SEN teachers and other assistants and how many per pupil with these needs.

At Ballakermeen High School, there is one full-time dedicated EAL Principal Education Support Officer (PESO). We also receive support from the EAL Department, which provides four EAL assistants on a supply basis. Each assistant works one day a week on a temporary schedule, as the EAL Department may reassign them to other schools when needed.

The PESO staff member and four part-time supply assistants support around 40 EAL students through individual support, group support and mainstream support. In addition to this, the PESO staff also liaise with the SEN Department and Learning Support Services, which currently support 38 students with both EAL and SEN status.

1. Details of any DESC additional EAL and SEN direct support provided including number of staff and their hours per week.

At present, there are 4 supply EAL assistants provided by EAL Department – one day a week each – 5 hours per day.

1. Annual budget allocated for EAL and SEN support

EAL Budget 2024/25 SEN Support Budget 2024/25 0 £ 255,790

The EAL budget is held centrally within the Education Advice and Support Division, the budget for EAL for 2024/25 is £353,786.

Redacted content
s25(b)(i)&(ii) While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information included within appendix one, specifically initials of staff members, because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that:

• The Department of Education, Sport and Culture is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Department of Education, Sport and Culture is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Department of Education, Sport and Culture can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met. S39 (1)(a)(b)- Qualified exempt personal information

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information held in the instances where information relates to five or less pupils as the Department determines that individual pupil's may be identifiable.

This information is exempt under Section 39 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Qualified exempt personal information) as it constitutes personal data of a person other than you and under section 8 of the Data Protection Act 2002 the data subject would be entitled to prevent disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under that Act.

As Section 39 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at large.

Factors in favour of disclosing the information include: - To promote transparency & accountability.

Factors in favour of maintaining the exemption include:
- That pupils and their parents/carers have an expectation that their child’s personal information will remain confidential. Disclosure of this information would contravene that expectation and cause an intrusion into the privacy of the data subject which may lead to some distress. - Whilst the Freedom of Information Act 2015 promotes transparency and accountability and therefore there may be some public interest it is not sufficient to outweigh an individual pupil’s right for this information to remain private.

In assessing the weight to be attributed to each of the factors in favour of disclosing the information and maintaining the exemption, the Department of Education, Sport and Culture has taken the following into consideration:
- The severity of the prejudice
- The age of the information - How far disclosure would further the public interest identified above - Whether there is any similar information the public domain and whether this affects the public interest.

In taking these factors into account the Department of Education, Sport and Culture have determined that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information.

Please quote the reference number 4525889 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.