Why this is leading practice
Providing pastoral and academic support for pupils with EAL, including pupils newly arrived in the UK as well as UK born pupils with EAL..This includes a range of services: induction, assessment, mentoring, accessing the curriculum, curriculum support for core areas as well as interpreting and translation for parents. The impact is that pupils soon settle into the school and the wider community and begin to make progress quickly, parents and pupils feel welcome and valued and pupils are able to make accelerated progress. The school has a skilled and eager team committed to continuously leading integrated provision development within school, embracing the community its serves.
Impact to date
Parents and pupils are very supportive of the school and will often travel to attend Audley School by choice rather their neighbouring primary.
• The work done by the EAL team has an impact on the whole school in terms of giving pupils an understanding of different cultures through the Friday afternoon activities which include music, dancing and art from different cultures.
• EAL pupils’ levels are above the national average for all pupils, in English and Science.
• Parents feel welcome in the school and attend Numeracy and literacy workshops in their children’ classes during the day on a termly basis, where are given advice on how to support their children with their studies at home.
• ESOL classes for parents are offered and attended by a number of parents.
• The EAL team disseminate their skills and knowledge by networking with EAZ and delivering workshops at EAL network conferences. (3 workshops in July 2009 and plans to deliver similar workshops in 2010).
Rationale / Start Point
The school has had to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing population. In a relatively short time ( 3 years) the school’s population has changed dramatically from less than 10% pupils having EAL to currently 22% overall with higher proportions in the Early Years.
Key Strategies
- Good induction, training and support of new members of the EAL team
- Activities to involve parents in the life of the school
- Regular monitoring of progress of AEL pupils and targeted support
- Regular contact with all parents. EAL team pro-active in establishing contact with parents.
- Communication with parents and pupils in their home language as necessary
- Language support for parents – ESOL classes
- Celebration of pupils’ success
- Celebration of cultural and religious events and involvement of all pupils in those activities.
- Links with EAZ and Local Authority in order to share expertise and good practice
Sustainability and Further Development
The EAL team is a very cohesive, committed and enthusiastic group of teachers and teaching assistants with clear objectives, an obvious shared vision and understanding of the aims of the team and the needs of the children and their parents. This team would continue to function even if a key member left the school.
The Headteacher and EAL coordinator have agreed with my recommendation for future development and will now look at increasing the Friday afternoon activities which are delivered to all children, to include other cultural activities alongside the Asian club and consequently develop the pupils understanding and knowledge of a wider range of cultures.