English as an Additional Language (EAL)
Students with EAL are those students for whom English is not their first language. Students with EAL learn English by being in the classroom and interacting with their teachers and peers.
General strategies to support students with EAL
The school has an EAL policy (a full copy of the policy is on the website under Our School/Policy Notes) in which it is recognised that teachers can take various actions to support EAL students including:-
- ensuring that vocabulary work covers the technical as well as the everyday meaning of key words e.g. homophones, metaphors and idioms
- explaining how speaking and writing in English are structured for different purposes across a range of subjects
- providing a range of reading materials that highlight the different ways in which English is used
- ensuring that there are effective opportunities for talking, and that talking is used to support writing
- encouraging students to transfer their knowledge, skills and understanding of one language to another
- building on students’ experiences of language at home and in the wider community, so that their developing uses of English and other languages support one another. This could be by using written translations to support vocabulary building and understanding when this is appropriate.
- provide writing frames as scaffolding towards more independent learning
Leading Learning Support Assistant for EAL
Students receive in-class support to help them apply their new vocabulary and sentence structures. They also have small group intervention sessions to develop their knowledge and understanding of English.
EAL: Improving English Club
The school has a club which runs after school on a Tuesday afternoon for students with EAL. Students play English focused games and undertake activities such as presenting, vocabulary building activities and group work to help in their acquisition of English and confidence when speaking in class.
Sixth Form student support
Sixth formers work with individual students in certain subject areas to support their language acquisition and progress in the subject. They are given specific advice on how to best support and also specific targets that apply to the student.
EAL Support Service
The school also liaises with the Local Authority EAL service who provide advice and intervention for students at an early stage of language acquisition.
The school tracks students with EAL each term to monitor and feedback their progress, identifying any particular areas of weakness, in order to assess future actions needed.