The role of the ethnic minority
achievement coordinator
Schools with EMAG grant funded
staff will often appoint an EMA
coordinator to the middle
management team. The EMA
coordinator’s main function, along
with teachers and other practitioners
funded by the EMA grant, is to
promote and secure high quality
What are the main responsibilities of the EMA coordinator?
■ Inform the development of
the school improvement
plan (SIP)
■ Coordinate the work of
EMA grant funded staff and
external agency/project
staff who have a role in
raising minority ethnic
achievement
■ Support the development
of effective teaching
partnerships between EMA
teachers and their
mainstream colleagues
■ Negotiate and manage
a budget
24 ■ Play a part in developing
and implementing the race
equality and EMA policies
and action plans, that are
linked to the SIP
■ Use pupil data to identify
needs and plan the
appropriate deployment
of EMA grant funded
resources and staff
■ Take a lead on continuing
professional development
(CPD) for promoting minority
ethnic achievement
learning and teaching of BME pupils,
including EAL learners.
It is recommended that an EMA
coordinator has both specialist
knowledge of EMA issues, including
English language acquisition, and
mainstream teaching experience.
■ Work closely with the ■ Support the efforts of the
school’s assessment school to recruit staff that
coordinator to track the come from the same ethnic,
progress of the pupils linguistic and cultural
both individually and by backgrounds as the children
ethnic group in school
■ Develop strategies and
projects to tackle ➽GO TO the Teaching and
underachievement Learning and Partnerships with
Parents, Carers and the
■ Support evaluation of the Community booklets for more
impact of the school’s work information about the role of
to promote minority EMA coordinators and
ethnic achievement and practitioners.
race equality
■ Actively promote BME
parental and community
involvement, including with
community and
supplementary schools

Case study: Walworth School (now Walworth Academy)
By the summer of 2007, a
quarter of Walworth School’s
students were arriving outside
normal admission times,
usually from overseas. Many
of the students were
beginners of English.
Jane Dubeck, the EMA
coordinator, gave a warm
welcome to new arrivals and
organised their admission
and induction.
“With young people from all
over the world and who have
often had their education
interrupted, my work is very
interesting and challenging.”
Jane’s responsibilities included:
■ assessing all EAL learners’
needs and monitoring
their progress
■ developing flexible learning
programmes, including
some withdrawal teaching
for beginners
■ providing in-class support
for core-curriculum lessons
■ coaching and pastoral
support, including tutoring
a group of mainly EMA/EAL
students
■ supporting home language
maintenance by offering
GCSE entry in up to twelve
languages
Although Jane had only one
teaching assistant they managed
to offer EAL learners the AQA
English entry level certificate
last year.
“Although my budget is small
my classroom has great views!
I have a reading corner, a
mini-kitchen, and a brand-
new interactive whiteboard
and projector. I try to deliver
a very varied experience to
the students.”
Jane sees challenging racism
and celebrating diversity as a
key part of her role and her
CHILDREN’S SERVICES
team organised a display about
black Europeans as the school
have many students of African
origin from European countries.
As a middle manager Jane:
■ contributed to whole school
policies and staff inset
■ worked with the school’s
assessment coordinator to
track the progress of
EMA students
■ led a middle managers’
forum for colleagues
undertaking the NCSL’s
Leading from the
Middle training
■ developed projects to tackle
underachievement such as
working with Rewrite, an
agency who deliver drama
and ESOL classes after school,
and Working with Men, a
refugee training project
“
Working with limited
human resources on a
split-site is a big challenge
but we have had great
successes with higher than 25
average attainment by
EAL students overall, and
steadily-improving results
for underachieving groups
such as Caribbean boys.
Some highly-motivated
EAL arrivals have achieved
five good GCSEs in less
than a year.