English as an Additional Language

Raising Bilingual Children – Document on Raising Bilingual Children produced by the University of Reading

Parent’s Role – Ideas to develop Language – St Norbert’s Academy is committed to providing a supportive and inclusive learning environment.

Mrs Withers is responsible for Inclusion at school alongside our dedicated EAL Teaching Assistant Mrs Szczygiel. We are responsible for the operation of the EAL Policy and co-ordination of specific targeted provision made to support individual children who are identified as having English as an additional language.   We liaise with staff to monitor the pupil’s progress and plan further intervention and challenge where progress is slower than expected. We ensure early EAL Baselines are conducted so provision meets the needs of all especially those children new to the country. We also annually assess EAL proficiency scales to aid staff in providing the best possible support to promote progress.

Information about the school’s EAL provision (Article 30)

At St. Norbert’s we recognise that a child has English as an additional language if:

• S/he has speaks a language at home other than English for the majority of time;
• If they have been living in England for less than 2 years and have come from a country where English is not a native language.

The government’s definition of an EAL learner includes anyone who has been exposed to a language other than English during early childhood “and continues to be exposed to this language in the home or the community”. Many EAL learners are UK-born.

Timings of the Day

Key language for children to know:

Hello My name is… Yes No

Where is the…? I don’t understand I don’t feel well Thank you

I need to the toilet I like… I don’t like… Goodbye

Methods of support for the children.

EAL is not a subject, like history, maths or science. EAL learners have a double job to do: learn English and learn through English at the same time. EAL aims to teach English using the mainstream curriculum as the context.

The following are realistic and feasible teaching and learning strategies used by teachers. They are primarily aimed at new arrivals, however, many of the strategies will be flexible according to the needs of the pupils but may include:

-Developing appropriate resources

Visual support – visual timetables, multilingual instruction mats, “survival” fans (e.g. I need the toilet; I feel sick), word banks, writing frames (EAL Nexus has curriculum-related visual support; you can create visual word banks and frames using software such as Communicate in Print).

EAL picture dictionary (such as Collins First English Words) and an age-appropriate bilingual dictionary (such as from Mantra Lingua).

–  In class support for individuals and small groups

–  Planned discrete lessons to support language development using the ‘Induction to English for children with English as an Additional Language’ package

Teaching and modelling vocabulary and language structures needed for the task/subject

Teaching key words and phrases (the EAL Nexus Great Ideas pages).

Providing opportunities to talk before writing

– Support within small-group intervention strategy programmes also involving non EAL pupils.

The school also has one EAL Teaching Assistant, Mrs Szczygiel who is able to speak Polish and Russian and is available for oral translation at various meetings including, but not exclusively, Star Target reviews and meetings about issues in class such as behaviour.

Home-school links

As a school we constantly strive to engage and communicate with parents to ensure we are working collaboratively with the pupil in mind.  Strategies are in place to:

– Welcome parents into school

–  Communicate with and involve parents in their children’s learning through parent consultation meetings, informal meetings when children are collected from school and through translated letters where necessary.

–  Promote a multi-cultural understanding in school (Article 30) through Culture Week, World Book Day, European Day of Languages, UNICEF, Global Citizenship and displays in school

The school is aware of obstacles to communication that may arise for some pupils and families with EAL and knows where to seek advice and support to overcome these, particularly in relation to translation of documents.

Did you Know?

Taking an interest in your child’s education is the most important thing you can do to help them achieve their full potential.