English as an Additional Language (EAL)
Here at Cirencester Primary School, we know how hard it can be to start a new school surrounded by a language you are not familiar with or one that is different from the one you speak at home. We take this into account with our learners and strive to support them as much as we can.
We recognise and value the home languages and backgrounds of the pupils who are learning English as an additional language. We strongly believe that children should be proud of the languages they speak and we celebrate and recognise the diversity that we have within our school.
The term “EAL” is used to describe a diverse group of learners who speak English as an Additional Language and are exposed to another language. Other terms that are used for EAL students are ‘ESL’ (English as a Second Language) and ‘bilingual’. It is more inclusive to use ‘EAL’ and ‘multilingual’; English could be a third or fourth language for some children, rather than a second.
We understand that pupils learning English as an additional language share many common characteristics with pupils whose first language is English and have similar needs to those of other children learning in school. However, these pupils also have distinct and different needs from other pupils by virtue of the fact that they are learning in and through an additional language, whilst also learning that language. In addition, they come from cultural backgrounds and communities with different understandings and expectations of education, language and learning.
Cirencester Primary School supports EAL learners through:
Support with transition in which peers play a central role in supporting and facilitating integration for new pupils. Group work also supports EAL learners in class.
Communicating effectively with home to improving the outcomes of EAL learners and support new families to be part of the school community.
Through Seesaw, we ensure learners understands what to do for their home learning tasks.
Make class letters/school information accessible through the use of clear language and short sentences.
How to support your child’s learning at home
Schools in the UK expect children to do homework and parents to help and encourage home learning. We understand that if English is not your first language that this can be hard, so this is why our staff are here to support you!
Here are some ideas on how you can help your child to learn:
Read with your child at home
You can do this in your first language and talk about the pictures and what is happening in the story. With older children you can listen to them read and ask them to guess words if they don’t know what they mean.
EAL Apps to Support Pupils and Parents/Carers
There’s a wealth of excellent websites, apps and programmes that can support EAL learners and parents/carers. Here are some recommendations:
This will translate text and whole documents for you! There is also a playback feature so the audio of texts can be heard.
Website: https://translate.google.co.uk/
Tutorial Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaBrwzPQbhM
Audible is an audio book and podcast provider which requires a subscription. Texts are available in a number of languages.
Website: https://www.audible.co.uk/
Duolingo helps language learners listen, read, write, and speak a new language. Duolingo has several different mini-games, challenges, and activities to help learn a language.
Website: https://www.duolingo.com/
Say Hi is a translation app, similar to Google Translate. It will translate spoken language and resources into a range of languages, including Cantonese. It can be downloaded onto most devices.