English as an Additional Language

Every teacher is an EAL teacher. 

What is good for an EAL student is good for all students. 

We are committed to providing an appropriate and high-quality education to all our pupils in school. All pupils need to feel safe, accepted and valued in order to learn. For pupils who are learning English as an additional language, this includes recognising and valuing their home language and culture. As a school, we are aware that multilingualism is a strength and that EAL pupils have a valuable contribution to make. We take a whole school approach, including ethos, curriculum, education against racism and promoting language awareness.

This aims to raise awareness of the school’s obligations and to support the planning, organisation, teaching and assessment procedures, and the use of resources and strategies to meet the needs of pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL) and so to raise pupil achievement.

Taken and adapted from  Developing a Whole School English as an Additional Language (EAL) Policy LCC Ethnic Minority Gypsy Roma and Traveller Achievement Service

The term “EAL” is used to describe a diverse and heterogeneous group of learners who speak English as an Additional Language. In England, such learners are defined as those who have been ‘exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English’ (Department for Education, 2019).

This is a very diverse group!

• Newly arrived from a foreign country and school
• Newly arrived from a foreign country, but from an English-speaking school
• Born abroad, but has been living in UK for a number of years
• Born abroad, but moved to the UK at some point before starting school
• Born in the UK, but in a family where the main language is not English.

At Mangotsfield we have EAL learners of all levels from absolute beginners to fluent speakers. 

We welcome and celebrate our diverse culture and multilingual students and families. This page will inform you of our aims, objectives and responsibilities with regard to the needs of EAL students.

We also want to encourage parents  for whom English is not their first language to let us know so we can support you with English and translation of phone calls, meetings and letters regarding your child's education.

Please complete this form to let us know.

We aim to  

Celebrate all cultures and languages that pupils with EAL bring to Mangotsfield.

Provide a safe environment which celebrates diversity and supports English language learning.

Ensure that we collect all relevant information about new pupils and communicate essential information to all relevant members of staff through  our admissions system.

Monitor students progress regularly using Bell foundation EAL bands - ensure all staff are aware of and have access to EAL student profiles detailing student proficiency bands, strategies and targets.

Ensure that a wide range of strategies are used both inside and outside of the classroom  to support EAL students to access the curriculum.

Support EAL students to become confident and fluent in English  through quality first teaching.

Support and promote the continued use of students' home language - encouraging translanguaging and supporting students to develop their home language. 

Work with parents of EAL learners and ensure language is not a barrier to effective partnership.

EAL Band

The following chart aims to detail our procedure and provision for EAL students.

LRC

EAL sessions take place in our EAL area in the LRC. This area is a space for students to come to at break or lunch time if they want to have a quiet space to talk to friends, play language games, use the laptops, read our graded readers and home  language books. Miss Bryan is also there  during lunch and break times for students who want to pop in to talk to her about their learning.

Websites for EAL learners 

Learning Village - independent learning. Your child will be given a username and password and can access the learning at home.  We expect students with an account to use ¾ times a week for 15-20 minutes.  Click on logo above to access the website. 

British council https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/beginner-grammar Suitable for beginner learners of English. Practice and improve English grammar with fun videos. Also online exercises and worksheets. 

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/games Games to improve English vocabulary 

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/apps Learn/improve English with apps - games, podcasts, videos and quizzes to help learn English at home

Reading and stories 

https://www.penguinreaders.co.uk/books/?tab=activities A range of worksheets to go with the  graded readers in the EAL area of the LRC. 

https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/gradedreading/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en This site uses Graded Readers, a series of simplified books written for different levels of proficiency in English which include questions to help learners explore language.

https://globalstorybooks.net/  Global Storybooks is free multilingual literacy resource for children and youth worldwide.

 http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ 

 Online books  in many languages. The website aims to enable families to have access to the books of their culture and language regardless of where they live.

 https://worldstories.org.uk/

World Stories is a growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children - over 30 languages available.

About the English Education System: Secondary Schools: 

Guidance for parents translated.