EAL

Context

Woodlands Primary School currently has more than 50% of pupils for which English is an additional language. Most of those children have Bangladeshi heritage but there are also a significant number of children of Chinese, Turkish/Kurdish, Arabic, South East Asian and Eastern European heritages. A total of 29 languages are spoken by our pupils.

There is always some degree of fluctuation in these numbers as children leave and join the school.

At Woodlands Primary our overarching philosophy is that everything we do to support our EAL pupils supports our non-EAL pupils. With this in mind, our curriculum has a large focus on vocabulary and reading comprehension skills.  We also believe that our pupils benefit greatly from the diversity of language and culture that is part of everyday life at school and that this reflects our core value of respect. It also prepares our pupils for a multicultural society outside of school.

Staffing

We have a bilingual (Bengali) teacher and we employ bilingual (Bengali) TAs throughout the school. We also have a bilingual (Bengali) member of our lunchtime staff.

We receive some support from MEAS (Wirral) as well as support from the Liverpool EMTAS. When necessary we use interpreters from Wirral Multicultural Centre.

Provision

Our provision differs according to each child’s needs. Children are assessed and monitored using the Bell Foundation materials, so that we are able to plan the best support, enabling them to make excellent progress and become fluent in speaking and understanding English. We believe that all children should be given the opportunity to socialise and interact with their peers so that they can learn from each other. This is particularly important for New Arrivals, therefore any withdrawal of our EAL children from class is for a specific purpose and is linked to the work of that class. 

New Arrivals (Provision)

We have many children who are new arrivals to the country joining our school. We have an agreed plan in place so that we can help these children to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

Trainee Teacher support

Each year we have a number of trainees from LJMU come to Woodlands to develop their understanding of provision for EAL pupils.

Mosque Visits/Ambassadors

In Wirral, MEAS organises tours of the local mosque for pupils in Wirral schools on a regular basis. Our Y6 pupils act as “Ambassadors” on these tours, offering pupils a greater understanding of the Muslim faith from their perspective. We also have pupils who visit other schools to talk about their faith, customs and practice. We are very proud of the way in which our pupils carry out this work. 

Parents

We value the role that all parents play in supporting their children in school. Typically, EAL parents have not always been involved in school activities. We have worked hard to develop relationships with EAL parents and to provide an environment in which they feel welcome. 

We have provided a variety of workshops /classes aimed directly at EAL parents to encourage them to come into school and gain a greater understanding of how they can help their children at home. 

International Events/Celebrations

At Woodlands we want to prepare all our pupils for the multicultural world that we live in today. We enjoy celebrating the wide variety of language, story, music, dance, drama, art, beliefs and cultures that is part of that world and we value all that our EAL pupils bring to our diverse community. We have run a number of International events and always have fun celebrating Divali, Christmas, Eid, Chinese New Year etc together.