English as an Additional Language (EAL)
Languages spoken at Southtown Primary School
At Southtown Primary School, we are proud of our diverse community.
We have over 17 different languages spoken in our school by around 60 of our pupils.
We aim to recognise and celebrate the different nationalities and cultures through our curriculum and within life of the school and to make all children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) feel welcome and supported.
Pupils with EAL are monitored for their progress across the curriculum and their acquisition of English. We aim to support them in the classroom through the use of visual resources, translation tools and intervention support to boost their vocabulary and communication.
A pupil's first language is defined as any language other than English that a child was exposed to during early development and continues to be exposed to in the home or community. If a child was exposed to more than one language (which may include English) during early development, a language other than English should be recorded, irrespective of the child's proficiency in English.
The Ofsted definition
English as an additional language (EAL) refers to learners whose first language is not English. These definitions therefore cover the following:
- Pupils arriving from other countries and whose first language is not English.
- Pupils who have lived in the UK for a long time and may appear to be fluent, but who also speak another language at home. These pupils are often not entirely fluent in terms of their literacy levels.
- Pupils who have been born in the UK, but for whom the home language is not English (e.g. Bengali children who are born in the UK, but arrive at school with very little English due to having spoken only Bengali at home and within the community)
- Pupils who have a parent who speaks a language other than English and the child communicates with in that language (ie. bi-lingual children)
It is important therefore to recognise that:
- Pupils who have British citizenship can still be EAL.
- If parents write on their child’s admission form that the child speaks English as a first language, when it is clear that one or both of these parents is a speaker of another language, the child is very likely in fact to be EAL, and it will be necessary to check this.
If you have any questions about these definitions or if you think your child should be recorded as EAL, please contact the school office for further information.
Support
New Routes provides a range of practical support to families and programmes to promote social integration. Visit their website to find out more.
Useful links
The Bell Foundation has lots of useful information for families and resources for school staff. You can visit their website to find out more about strategies and resources.
The Bell Foundation: Parent Guidance
Communication
Website translation tools - just click the "Translate" button to translate text on the school website to your home language.
Class DoJo - Change your account settings to your chosen language to translate messages, Class Story and School Story posts:
