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About the School
English as an Additional Language
We offer a warm welcome to all our families from around the world who are part of our St. Crispin’s community. There are more than fifty-two languages spoken at St. Crispin’s and twenty three per cent of our students speak English as an additional language.
The Department for Education (DfE) records a pupil as using EAL if they have been ‘exposed to another language during their early years and continue to be exposed to the language in the home or community.’
All our pupils need to feel safe, accepted and valued in order to learn. For students who are learning English as an additional language, this includes recognising and valuing their home language and background. As a school, we are aware that bilingualism is a strength and that EAL pupils have a valuable contribution to make.
To provide EAL students with the appropriate support to suit their needs we assess language proficiency and discuss prior learning with parents to ascertain each individual’s educational background.
We use Flash Academy to assess our students and use this information to create a programme of support and intervention, if needed, tailored to the individual student’s needs.
Some of the support strategies we use on a regular basis include:
- Group interventions during the school day with specialist EAL staff;
- Peer-mentoring from our Student Council students;
- Adult support in class;
- Various translation tools;
- Homework club in our Learning Support department;
- A wide variety of classroom strategies through Quality First Teaching such as vocabulary lists, visual stimuli, buddying with other first language speakers, etc.
- Translanguaging (encouraging EAL learners to use their own language to empower them and help them to realise their full potential)
- After school drop in clubs with EAL specialists
- Buddying with other first language speakers
Best practice for all EAL students is to be in the classroom where they will have the maximum exposure to English and opportunities to engage with their peers.
We recognise many of the families who join us at St Crispin’s have joined us from a variety of locations across the world. Below are some useful links to websites that might offer support and advice.