EAL

Intent

We recognise that pupils for whom English is an Additional Language come from diverse linguistic, cultural and educational backgrounds; their experiences of schooling may be different to our own pupils’ experiences, and we accommodate this through high quality support both academically and pastorally.

We ensure that the learning experiences of our English as an Additional Language children enable them to build upon all their skills, talents and learning abilities to the full, no matter what their cultural or ethnic background.

Implementation

Outstanding teaching allows for appropriate differentiation, allowing our students to access the curriculum as is appropriate. Pupils for whom English is an Additional Language are taught with consistency and are with their peers as much as possible. Adaptations are made to ensure our English as an Additional Language children can access the curriculum; for example, through adding key vocabulary in both the pupil’s first language and in English, on to their activity sheet, in order to improve understanding. However, as much as possible, we try to keep pupils in the classroom, mixing with other children and taking part in conversational language. 

We recognise that our English as an Additional Language children will become more proficient and confident in their language acquisition if they are immersed in the language, not just in the classroom environment, but socially, too. It is for this reason, that pupils who have English as an Additional Language are 'buddied’ with another child in school, allowing them to build conversational fluency in English, too.

Impact

Through the use of small group work to support our English as an Additional Language children, we see pupils make good progress in developing their language. These sessions tend to focus on language acquisition and understanding. During this time, we work closely with teachers to ensure our intervention is specific, targeted and relevant. We monitor the impact of this intervention through dialogue with teachers and records of work completed, showing progress, we also collect reading ages to ascertain amounts of progress made by individual children.

As a school we recognise that some of our English as an Additional Language pupils may lack the confidence to speak out in class. We offer lots of opportunities to talk in pairs and small groups, in order to build this confidence. In turn, we find children become more confident to talk in whole class situations.