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In this blog, Chris Pim, Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor, explores how technology can be used to support learners of EAL.

Technology, when used appropriately, can enhance any pupil’s learning experience. However, technological solutions have been shown to have relatively small effect sizes in many circumstances (Hattie 2017); when used in the wrong situation, technology may even interfere with learning. It is apparent that effective use of technology is “dependent on context and predicated on the notion that what works in one context may not be entirely replicable in another” (Pim, 2013). This is especially true where practitioners have the additional consideration of matching provision to the proficiency in English of their target EAL pupils.

From the perspective of learning EAL, since acquisition of English should not be the totality of a pupil’s learning journey, technology just used to ‘teach English’, particularly where it supplants quality mainstream provision, is best avoided. Instead, the power of technology lies in the potential for enhancing pupils’ wider learning; enhancing curriculum access, utilising proficiency in heritage languages, providing flexible opportunities for demonstrating learning and supporting the development of English across the curriculum.

Using technology to provide pupils with greater access to the curriculum is an obvious starting point. In order to make learning more explicit for EAL learners, to make the messages more abundant (Gibbons 2008), practitioners need to infuse their lessons with multimedia. Images, infographics, videos, podcasts, animations all enhance meaning and are essential to overcome the additional linguistic and cultural challenges EAL learners experience, whether UK born or recently arrived from abroad.

Using translation tools, either for ad-hoc communication or more academic purposes, is another useful strategy. These tools have become extremely powerful, although they still have their limitations (Pim, 2018). There are many solutions available – these range between dedicated digital devices like ECTACO products, through text-based online translation tools, to apps like SayHi that use voice recognition and the power of neural networking to provide instant translations, read aloud in authentic, synthesised speech. The camera on a portable device can be used through Google Translate to render real-time on-screen translation as well. Whilst not good enough for formal translation, these tools are genuinely useful for two-way conversations, mediated by both parties. With care, they can be used by practitioners to prepare dual-language glossaries and to communicate simple ideas in text. Pupils literate in first language, with guidance, will find them immensely useful to facilitate access to the curriculum and even as a means of providing support with translating their writing from first language into English.

There are many digital resources available to support pupils’ maintenance and development of heritage languages. Companies like Mantra Lingua have had a long association with the EAL field through their audio-enabled, multilanguage books and learning charts. Many schools will already be aware of Mantra’s TalkingPEN technology which provides a natural link between touch, print and sound to bring interactive learning to the user. Their Kitabu library is also an efficient delivery platform for their bilingual e-books. There are plenty of free e-books available in different languages on the web, but as always with online materials, their provenance will need to be checked. The International Children’s Digital Library is an excellent source of free texts that can be filtered in several different ways e.g. by age category and language.

The importance of developing listening and speaking skills should not be underestimated, whether children are at an early stage of learning EAL or more advanced learners. EAL learners will benefit from structured approaches to develop such skills in English, building on practitioners’ understanding that children are not blank slates and carry relevant skills from their own heritage languages (Coles, Flynn & Pim n.d.).

Storytelling is a perfect opportunity for all children, whether learning EAL or not, to practise their oral skills for authentic purposes; technology can both facilitate the process as well as enable recording and playback. Children can use first language, or a combination of languages alongside English. Using tablet devices and an app like Puppet Pals HD, pupils can work independently - or collaboratively - to create digital stories from backgrounds, moving characters and a recorded narration that is eventually bound up into a movie clip. Software like Crazy Talk, Morfo and Voki allow shy children to develop oral confidence by enabling them to make a private recording and then attach it to an animated ‘avatar’ such as their face, an animal or even an inanimate object.

Technology can also help pupils to create and self-publish stories with digital elements. Book Creator, available on most platforms, enables a user to produce e-books from text, drawings, images, audio and video. Pupils can be encouraged to write independently or collaboratively, using Storybird. This free online tool, accessible from school or home, provides glorious imagery to stimulate creative writing in any language. Mantra Lingua offers another solution in the form of recordable sticky labels, TalkingPENs and a range of software for producing audio-enabled stories.

The ability to record and playback speech allows children to practise pronunciation, rehearse vocabulary and play around with chunks of language in preparation for further tasks. There are numerous portable solutions around (Talking Products and TTS-Group) such as talking tins, pegs, cards and photo albums. The latter devices are especially useful for combining text, imagery and artefacts with recorded speech as a talk-for-writing approach.

The link between understanding text and wider educational attainment has resonance for learning EAL, since pupils’ reading skills are reportedly on average a year behind monolingual peers (Smith 2016). Whatever approaches schools take to address this discrepancy, practitioners need to bear in mind that learning to read is just one element woven into a rich tapestry that results in a pupil’s lifelong passion for reading. It is important that teaching builds upon pupils’ existing reading proficiencies in other languages, that practitioners use age-appropriate texts and capitalise on pupils’ interests through presentation of a diverse mix of texts.

There are some genuinely useful resources and technologies for enabling pupils to access texts which might ordinarily be beyond them. It is worth looking online for translated and abridged versions of typical class and course readers. Many book schemes provide texts with an audio CD such as Oxford and Cambridge graded readers. Providing an audio accompaniment for an associated text like this is a particularly useful technique. E-books offer another option, although practitioners should bear in mind that some pupils may not particularly like them, rather preferring to read an actual book. However, along with high quality audio, e-books do provide additional features such as contextualised glossaries. Print can be read aloud from paper-based sources through OCR scanning technology using a device like C-Pen; different versions of C-Pen offer additional functionality such as in-built dictionaries and translation capability. Digital text can easily be read aloud from the screen on computers and mobile devices using integrated text-to-speech software. It’s also possible to look up word meanings and translation equivalents directly using online resources that interface with a user’s digital reader of choice. Finally, it is worth considering how to ensure that online texts are as accessible as possible to emergent readers; for example, finding appropriate sources that present information simply. There are websites like Kidrex, which assist web-safe refined searching, that do exactly that. Also consider use of Simple English Wikipedia for older learners.

It is well established that children learning EAL need opportunities for explicit teaching and learning of new vocabulary across the curriculum (DfES 2006). Typically, pupils learning EAL have smaller vocabularies in English compared with non-EAL peers, a factor that has been shown, for example, to be an important predictor of reading comprehension Murphy (2015). There are numerous ICT-based tools available for reinforcing knowledge of vocabulary (in all its forms). Dual-language glossaries, supported visually, are easy to create using Widgit, something that may be useful to L1 literate pupils, as well as their parents. Quiz-based vocabularies can be created and/or sourced online from pre-built versions, via Quizlet. Plickers is a free polling tool suitable for whole class vocabulary building activities. Other games can be made using tools like Osric’s Bingo Card Generator as well as a wide variety of word-definition matching activities using Formulator Tarsia software. Word clustering tools like WordArt.com help learners focus on topic words, as well as encouraging inference around the text-type and genre the words have been drawn from.

One of the biggest challenges for EAL learners is to convert their thinking and talking into writing. Some children will be ready for sustained free writing, whilst others may be limited to composing smaller chunks of text within digital scaffolds. They may choose to write in English, first language or a combination. It is worth mentioning that computers and mobile devices need to be set up specifically to enable children to interface voice and keyboard input to search, translate and write digitally in a preferred language other than English.
 
Emergent writers benefit from technologies that enable them to convey their ideas through multimedia elements and snippets of text, rather than full prose. Cartoon makers like Comic Life provide a framework in which to drop imagery, either from a device’s camera or an external file, alongside the use of text holding areas like speech bubbles and legends. An app like iMovie can be used across the curriculum to help pupils demonstrate learning in creative ways. Within iMovie, the Trailer feature offers different storyboard templates across a range of genres, encouraging pupils to edit default text with their own short, snappy version to accompany the visuals. Adobe Spark Video is another tool for producing annotated movies. This app allows a user to record an audio narration and build up a storyboard using copyright-free imagery, but interestingly, once again, deliberately constrains writing to short sentences.
 
There are many digital writing tools available for more cohesive writers. These take the form of dedicated supportive word processors such as Book Creator and Clicker Docs as well as plugin software keyboards like Texthelp’s read&write and Grammarly. Traditional supports in digital writing tools like spelling and grammar checks will of course be useful, but only when children are explicitly taught the conventions of red and green underlining. Integrated thesauri will also help those pupils with a strong enough lexical knowledge to make sensible choices between synonyms. Newer features like predictive text assist pupils with word choice, both within and between words. They can also hear back what they have written via text-to-speech synthesis, a feature which can help some users spot their errors more easily. A user can also shortcut typing via the speech-to-text listening capability of the operating system; an easy way for pupils who are not confident in their use of keyboards to render digital text through natural speech. Clicker Docs has an additional feature where topic word banks can be imported from online repositories, enabling easy access to context-related subject glossaries.
 
To conclude, it is worth considering what networking tools are available for busy practitioners to keep up to date and access additional guidance from the wider community of EAL professionals. One idea is to register for the EAL-Bilingual Google group. Following organisations and professionals on Twitter and tweeting around the #EAL hashtag is another great idea. Curating apps like Pinterest and Pearltrees offer a cornucopia of relevant content when searched for relevant terms such as a ‘EAL’ and ‘ELL’. Finally, subscribing to relevant blogs is a useful way to keep up to date with current thinking.
 
This blog first appeared in the EAL Journal, Spring 2020.

References:

Coles S., Flynn, N. & Pim, C. EAL MESHGuide. Accessed 2.1.20
http://www.meshguides.org/guides/node/112?n=119

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2006) Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary years. Unit 2 Creating the learning culture: making it work in the classroom. London DfES.

Gibbons, P. (2008). Challenging pedagogies: More than just good practice? NALDIC Quarterly, 6(2), 4-14.

Hattie, J. (2017). Backup of Hattie’s Ranking list of 256 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement
https://visible-learning.org/backup-hattie-ranking-256-effects-2017

Murphy, V. (2015) Assessing vocabulary knowledge in learners with EAL: What’s in a word? NALDIC Conference.

Pim, C. (2013) Emerging technologies, emerging minds: digital innovations within the primary sector. In G. Motteram (Ed.), Innovations in learning technologies for English language learning (pp. 17-42). London. British Council.
 
Pim, C. (2018, June 12). Aren’t digital translation tools only useful for keywords? [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://emtas.hias.hants.gov.uk/blog/index.php?entryid=18

Smith, N. (2016, September 26). Reading comprehension is the key to accessing the curriculum. [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://naldic.org.uk/httpsealjournal-org20160927reading-comprehension-is-the-key-to-accessing-the-curriculum

Useful websites:

EAL-Bilingual Google group - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/eal-bilingual

EMA/EAL related Blogs: https://naldic.org.uk/professional-learning-cpd/links/blogs-news-resources

Mantra Lingua - https://uk.mantralingua.com

Talking Products - https://www.talkingproducts.com/educational-resources.html

TTS-Group - https://www.tts-group.co.uk/primary/computing-ict/speaking-listening

Scanning Pens - http://www.dictionarypen.com

The International Children’s Digital Library - http://en.childrenslibrary.org

Widgit - https://www.widgit.com/products/widgit-online/dual-language.htm

Formulator Tarsia - http://www.mmlsoft.com/index.php/products/tarsia

Osric’s Bingo card Generator - https://osric.com/bingo-card-generator

Plickers - https://get.plickers.com

WordArt.com - https://wordart.com/

Crazy Talk - https://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk

Voki - https://www.voki.com

Comic Life - https://plasq.com

Storybird - https://storybird.com

Grammarly - https://www.grammarly.com

Book Creator - https://bookcreator.com

Read&Write - https://www.texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-write 

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In this blog, Lauren Atkins, EAL Champion at St Peter’s Catholic Primary in Waterlooville, writes about her experience working towards and achieving the Bronze EAL Excellence Award.

Back in May 2020, thick into Lockdown, even before Years R, 1 and 6 returned or ‘live’ teaching was compulsory, I sat at my desk at home, waiting nervously to join a Zoom call. The accumulation of 8 months of hard work had come to this; a validation meeting which I had to join via my mobile, with two people (one of whom I hadn’t met), under the constant concern that one or both of my children would make an entrance at some point with something inappropriate to say. Thankfully, this moment – before the meeting started – was the scariest, most problematic of the entire journey to achieving the EMTAS EAL Excellence Award at Bronze level! The rest was, thankfully, incredibly straight-forward.

I assumed the role of EAL Champion in the September after completing my NQT year. I’d always had an interest in everything that would fall under the inclusion agenda; anything which could help to identify and overcome the barriers some children face when it comes to their learning. And so I was thrilled to relieve my SENDCo of the responsibility and to have the opportunity to really make a difference to many children - many, many children in fact, as our school, St Peter’s Catholic Primary in Waterlooville, has the highest percentage of pupils speaking English as an Additional Language in the area.

Of everything handed over to me by the SENDCo, hands down the most valuable piece of information was the email address of the EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor for our area - in my case, Chris Pim. After our very first meeting, I was set up to be able to access the EMTAS Moodle, I had a clear view of what the EAL Excellence Awards were, what would contribute to ‘evidence’ and how to record it.

I was also given access to the EMTAS e-learning. My first stop was the ‘Role of the EALCo’ training and it was an absolute nerve-saver! In particular, the action planning section of the training left me feeling clear (not only on the responsibilities of the role but how to be successful), in control and with an easy-to-follow, albeit reasonably sizeable list of things to do – exportable as a PDF nonetheless!

I’m definitely a scribble on a paper-copy kind of person and the EAL Excellence Award Criteria Reference Sheet became my new best friend, annotated with what we were already achieving, what we could do to achieve another or who I would need to meet with (usually the Head Teacher or the Business Manager) in order to clarify.

Throughout this, I should say, that I was lucky in that I had a portion of my PPA time every other week dedicated to all things EAL as well as release time once a half term. I appreciate that I was more fortunate than most in terms of dedicated time.

Along the journey, I dipped in and out of various training modules as I needed them. I wouldn’t always complete them in one go but found it useful to revisit and complete them when it suited. For instance, before typing up a Hints and Tips Sheet for distributing to Class Teachers, I completed the Teaching and Learning training. The EAL:SEND training I completed with a specific child in mind, both to help me internalise things but also to provide meaningful guidance to a real-life conundrum.

Anyway, I’m very pleased to say that my school is now working officially at Bronze level, on our way to Silver. In addition, I am thoroughly enjoying developing an area of expertise and raising the profile of EAL in our school community. Long may the benefits of the EAL Excellence Awards be felt!  

Congratulations to Lauren and St Peter’s Catholic Primary for achieving the Bronze Award!

 
For more information about the EMTAS EAL Excellence Award, please see this page on our Moodle.

For more information about our e-learning modules, please see this page on our Moodle.

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In this blog, four reviewers on initial teacher training pathways at the University of Chichester provide feedback on the Hampshire EMTAS 'Big Ideas' App. The app is designed to offer a snapshot of all the significant issues related to working with learners of EAL and their families, with links and suggestions for further reading. The app also gives users the opportunity to produce an action point list which can be printed or copied for further editing.

Big Ideas in EAL is an app designed to be used in schools containing a huge amount of information in one, easy to use area.  The simplicity of the design and clear layout belies the huge breadth and depth of information held within. It is easily accessible and the process of finding relevant information and ideas within each section is straightforward.

We felt overwhelmingly that this is an excellent resource for all school staff but especially NQTs and RQTs. For new teachers, the Teaching and Assessment and the Strategies and Resources sections have particularly valuable links that will be useful when thinking about lack of experience when working with children with EAL. The section on setting targets is also extremely useful, particularly with the links provided. This app would also benefit anybody in the teaching profession, especially those with little experience of teaching children with EAL, for example in a small village school, who may suddenly find themselves in a position where they have to. It would also benefit TEFL teachers.

The strategies and resources section would be ideal for lesson planning and teaching and we found the pedagogy section is especially useful: clear and concise, it does not assume any knowledge but is not patronizing either. The links to other pages and embedded documents are an excellent resource and save so much time. It’s great that you can make a list and then easily print it off, giving it to a TA perhaps. It is useful that you can save ideas for later (with the lightbulb) and print certain sections. We particularly liked the links that were in the cultural factors section, such as the TEACHING CULTURALY DIVERSE STUDENTS: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEACHERS which gave useful information how as a teacher you could provide an inclusive environment for children with EAL.

We thought it was important that wider school life and understanding has been brought into the EAL training – e.g. safeguarding / learning environment / pedagogy / SEND and EAL – and that, in particularly the safeguarding/SEND sections, there are other things to think about which may not occur to some at first, e.g. other things on top of EAL to be aware of. This was really valuable. It might be useful to have a section with quotes from children with EAL as to what they find/found most helpful in schools, what they enjoy/ed or benefit/ed most from. Their point of view may vary per child, but it would be interesting to have examples.

We liked that the homepage is colour-coded (e.g. red for strategies and resources / yellow for teaching and learning) as it makes it much clearer when navigating your way around the information. A couple of us found the white text on a black background a little hard to read and wondered if black on white would be visually more inclusive, or perhaps using warmer colours like turquoises and purples for the background or font. Using a big arrow pointing left to indicate "go back" rather than the words would be simpler, and the writing in the app in general would benefit from being a bit bigger as it is quite hard to read on a mobile phone screen. The symbols depicting each help section, e.g. links (spider diagram), ideas (lightbulb), print (printer!) are clear and these quick representations lighten the mental load when you are looking for something in a hurry. The hand-drawn illustrations are a nice personal touch.

We all liked the periodic table idea but did wonder about its relevance to EAL. However, it does provide a clear layout and we liked the coherence of the overall scheme. For example, when you click on a link e.g. Cd for Cultural Diversity, the same colour is used for the border, as well as the symbol ‘Cd’ and the full title, which ties together nicely. 

Gillian Roe (University of Chichester Academy Trust, School Direct)
Sarah Southey (University of Chichester Academy Trust, School Direct)
Sarah Green (The Bay, School Direct)
Alexandra Foster (Bishop Luffa, School Direct)

Many thanks to the trainee teachers for the feedback on the app. Watch this space for updates!

For more information about the Big Ideas App, and to access it, please visit the EMTAS Moodle

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In Diary of an EAL Mum, Eva Molea shares the ups and downs of her experience bringing up her daughter, Alice, in the UK. In the latest instalment, at the end of Lockdown 3, Eva reflects on Alice’s first 6 months in secondary school.

Last time I delighted you - my affectionate readers - with my comments on Alice’s education, we had just started Year 7 and barely managed to get through all the set-up steps needed for Alice to be a well-functioning secondary school student. Let’s recap some key points:

Uniform hunt: by the end of September, we had all the right bits and pieces, and Alice was a pro at doing her tie. We had seen some additions to the full array, like the embroidered cardi (that Alice had never worn because it was too uncomfortable under the school blazer), a V neck navy sleeveless jumper (that Alice had worn only once because she was afraid of being laughed at by other children) and different styles of hats, scarves and gloves to brave the morning chill. Obviously, during lockdown, she had a growth spurt, so we have been on a trousers-hunt again. On most websites, her size was sold out, but I managed to get a pair from the school second-hand uniform shop. That is a good starting point to get spares or items needed for a short time (and short it will be this time, as Easter holidays are just a few days away), and it supports the school finances!

Apps: In September, I had drunk many cups of tea to get all my apps up and running, and I am proud to say that I was on top of everything. Since the beginning of Lockdown 3, camomile has become a permanent fixture in our cupboard. More than once we had issues with logging on to the learning platform or getting into the Zoom lessons. Nothing that a bit (= a lot) of perseverance and a phone call to the school could not fix. The school has been very understanding, and the Reception Ladies should get a bonus for their unlimited patience. When things were getting too slow for the three of us to be able to work at home, my husband agreed on a WiFi upgrade (the broadband market offers many solutions, it only requires a little time to look at them), which helped a lot. To ease the traffic on the band, sometimes I still had to tether from my mobile phone or, even better, stop working for a couple of hours and read a book instead. Which was a treat! (One of the advantages of working part-time!)

Besides the normal challenges that any newbie secondary school parents/carers and children would have faced, lockdown has put some more hurdles on our path. But every cloud has a silver lining and there are some positive outcomes as well. I have asked Alice to give her views on a few points:

Technology:

Alice: During lockdown, having my own laptop has been great because we all needed a device to work on. The WiFi has been a bit up and down, but since the upgrade we have been fine. I have learnt how to use different conferencing software, like Zoom, and have improved my presentation skills with PowerPoint. Now I know how to scan and print from my phone or laptop and I have found some nice apps that allow me to draw on my tablet.

Eva: Alice has become very independent with the use of technology, and this is a life skill that will always be handy. Devices have eventually evolved from portable TVs to multipurpose objects: from attending her lessons to dancing, and from chatting with her bunch of friends to online gaming. Alice has improved her ability to use the online bilingual dictionary and thesaurus (we use wordreference.com, which comes also as an app), to research online and to check reliable websites (we have used many of the free resources for distance learning available on the EMTAS moodle). We have discussed online safety and I have reviewed my parental controls on all her devices. Without being too intrusive, I have regularly asked her what she is doing online and who she is playing with. So far, everything seems to be under control. In case you need guidance, here is the EMTAS booklet on safeguarding available in different languages.
 
Homework:

Alice: Before lockdown, the amount of homework was just right, but sometimes I struggled to find it because it was not always listed on the homework platform. During lockdown, we have had hardly any homework, apart from Science, which was always posted there. I enjoy doing projects, like the maracas I made for Mum in D&T. I find it easier to complete homework which can be printed out and done on paper or which involves some creativity.

Eva: Homework is still a mystery to me. Coming from a different schooling system, I expected that from Year 7 students would consistently get homework for every subject, but I have not seen this happen yet, especially during lockdown. When it is time for the daily homework, my life – and I am sure I can speak for most parents – would become much easier if all homework were to be consistently listed on the homework platform, and that no homework was marked optional as this label usually leads to useless arguments always ending with a grumpy child.
 
Screen time:

Alice: Probably, we have had a lot of screen time, especially during self-isolation and lockdown, but our generation spends a lot of time in front of a screen anyway.

Eva: To be honest, during lockdown I found it very hard to get the right balance of screen time, especially when everything was taking place online. Looking at the parental controls, we have noticed that some weeks Alice has been on her laptop for over 40 hours (more than a full-time employee), which included schoolwork, extra-curricular activities, chatting with friends and watching movies. In these peculiar times, as long as she respected the rules that we had given her, it was fine by me – but a bit less by my husband, who would send me to the front to fight the perennial battle on screen time. Why do I always have to play the mean one?
 
Physical activity:

Alice: At school I really enjoy playing sports with my friends. I had started to play netball as an after-school club, which I really liked as it is a team sport. During lockdown, I attended my PE lessons on Zoom and have been out walking with Mum when I had to, but I did not enjoy one bit the remote PE classes because I missed the happy atmosphere of the school and being with my friends. Not having to get up at 6.30am was great, and I got to sleep one more hour every day.

Eva: The words “physical activity” made Alice feel sick. I literally had to drag her (and my husband) out of the house. I even offered to pay her for every time she went for a walk. She is none the richer... Fortunately, the school changed the plan for PE, so one class was on Zoom and one was to be any outdoor activity that could be recorded on the school’s private Strava profile. They even awarded house points for every km done, and family members’ kms counted towards the house points too. Alice considered suggesting that I took her phone out for a walk, so that she could get the points, but thought better of it :D
 
Mental health:

Alice: In the last three months, I have had some ups and downs. I felt very lonely and sometimes demotivated to do anything. But I am very happy to get back to school. I believe I have grown up a little during lockdown and become more responsible. My worries have grown too. Normally, despite the amount of revision I do, school tests make me very anxious, and this happened even during lockdown. Now, I worry also about how other people might see me. Spending break times with my Mum, as well as having lunch together also with Dad, has helped make me feel less lonely. Mum even did some PE lessons online with me. During morning breaks we played games, as well as drawing, dancing, and having a snack. Food has been a highlight in our house during lockdown. We have been experimenting a lot in the kitchen.

Eva: Lockdown 1 and 3 have probably been the most surreal times in the life of most people, mine too. But they have also given me the luxury to spend so much time with Alice, that normal life would have never allowed for. We played many different games, some language based like Taboo, as well as digging out our art box and giving different things a go. I bought Alice several information books, covering mental health for teenagers, politics and philosophy for beginners (all published by Usborne), to stimulate her to read information books as well as fiction, and we discussed things in Italian, so she has acquired a lot of new vocabulary. I always praise her for her amazing abilities in both languages and have noticed that this makes her feel proud of herself. The important thing for me was to make sure she knew I was there for her. We have had a lot of small chunks of quality time together, and a solid routine, which gave Alice consistency throughout lockdown.

 
New skills:

Alice: Lockdown has had some good effects too. My table manners have gone back almost to Mum’s high standards, which is nice. Mum has given all the family the challenge to be able to speak some Spanish by December 2021, so we are all learning a new language on Duolingo. I have improved my cooking and baking skills and am much more confident in the kitchen. On weekends, I prepare coffee with the moka (traditional Italian way of making it) for my Dad and he says it tastes good. I have learnt how to sew buttons and mend small tears. I have attempted knitting, not very successfully yet. And, I have started my pointe classes, and I love them.

Eva: Never a dull moment in our house, there is always some crafts going on. Lately, Alice’s passion is making plated bracelets, so we have bits of colourful wool everywhere. With Alice learning Spanish at school, to encourage her language skills, I set a challenge for all the family using an app. Needless to say, constant encouragement and reminding are needed… We have made sourdough, so Alice has been cooking and baking, following traditional Italian recipes. It is a miracle we have not become more large than tall…
 
Getting back to school in Covid 19 times:

Alice: Coronavirus worries me quite a lot, but I am confident that the school will do everything they can to protect us. We need to follow the rules so we will not have to stay at home again for another lockdown. It has been explained to me how the testing works and it does not worry me much, even if it is disgusting. I am only afraid I might go too deep in my throat with the swab when doing it on my own, as when I had to take the Covid 19 tests, Mum or Dad did it for me.

Eva: Since the beginning of the school in September, we have experienced self-isolation because of Alice being a close contact of a friend who tested positive and also during lockdown 3, because I tested positive. The fact that we both had very mild symptoms has lifted some of her worries about the effects of the virus. We found it beneficial to stop listening to the news 24/7 because this was worrying her unnecessarily. We made sure that, at all times, we were compliant with the Government guidance, we explained to Alice what she could do (e.g. see one friend outdoor for some exercise) and what she should do (hand, face, space), provided her with all the necessary items (masks, hand gel, tissues, antibacterial wipes) anytime she went out and crossed our fingers that everything would be just fine.
 
In a couple of days, Alice will be back at school (she has already packed her bag and prepared her uniform), I will be back at work (I have packed my bag ready for my first school, including my badge) and my husband (who has helped pack both our bags) will enjoy himself, being the undisturbed king of the house. But only for a few hours... 

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UASC may arrive at any point in the academic year, typically into the end of Key Stage 3 or into Key Stage 4.  They have often experienced a difficult journey to the UK and they may face an uncertain future.  What can Hampshire EMTAS offer by way of support for these young people? In this blog, Sarah Coles, Hampshire EMTAS Consultant, explores this question.

UASC present schools with a challenge when it comes to provision in that many will have gaps in their schooling with some having had no prior experience of formal education.  In recent years, Hampshire schools have welcomed some UASC who have previously worked as sheep farmers in very rural settings and who have never attended school before; others have come with a more recognisable educational history though there may still be gaps in their knowledge of the different curriculum subjects studied in UK secondary schools.  In most cases, an immediate issue schools need to address relates to the young person’s levels of proficiency in English.

As with other international arrivals, EMTAS undertakes Profiling for all UASC referred, either through the SLA (for maintained schools and subscribing Academies) or through sold services.  Due to the complex and highly individual nature of each case referred, the profiling work is led by a Specialist Teacher Advisor working with a Bilingual Assistant or Interpreter.  Recently, due to Covid restrictions, some EMTAS Profiling work has moved online and has been carried out using MS Teams.  This article captures elements of the UASC profiling experience from the point of view of an EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor.

The young person in question I shall call Rebin, which means ‘path-finder’ (it’s not his real name).  He arrived in the UK in the summer of 2020 from rural Iran -where he had in fact worked with his father on the family sheep farm - via Italy and then a refugee camp in France.  Right in the middle of the lockdown.  He had no papers – which is not unusual for UASC – and so an age assessment was carried out which placed him in Year 10 – though right at the end of Year 10 with only a few weeks to go before the summer holiday.

Rebin’s first language was identified as Kurdish Sorani.  As part of Profiling, a first language assessment is always done in order to determine how the young person can use their first language to support their access to the curriculum.  Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are all included in this assessment.  For Rebin, an Interpreter was used to support the assessment, which was all done using MS Teams with Rebin supported at home to engage with the process by his foster carer.  It was found that Rebin could understand and speak Kurdish Sorani fairly well though because he’d not been schooled in Iran, his first language speaking and listening skills were very much about social interactions with others and not so much about academic learning. 

Rebin explained that whilst he had not attended school, his mother had taught him some reading and writing at home. When this was explored, it was found that Rebin could communicate meaning in writing in Kurdish Sorani but at a fairly basic level and he did not have a well developed academic register.  Another thing to note about Kurdish Sorani is that it’s written from right to left, which can present the learner with a directional difference to contend with when they start writing in English. 

Rebin’s reading in Kurdish Sorani was halting and he found it difficult to access much beyond basic, simple sentences.  This meant that for Rebin, providing written translations of curriculum materials would be of limited use.

Pre-Covid, the best place for a child like Rebin to begin to make new friends and learn English is at school with other pupils of a similar age.  Peer mentors would be asked to help induct the new arrival, help them find their way around and make sure they are not on their own during break times.  They might also accompany the new arrival to clubs and activities – Rebin was very keen on playing football, which normally would give him access to a group of peers who shared that interest. 

Rebin's writing in English and Kurdish Sorani

An assessment of Rebin’s English showed that he knew a few words and phrases, enough to say ‘hello’, that he could read some very simple words, performing better where these were supported by visual cues.  He could also write a few letters of the alphabet but by no means enough to communicate in writing in English; for practical purposes he would be classed as ‘new-to-English’ and he would need to be taught the basics of reading and writing for sure, most likely in withdrawal sessions as these are not things you can just pick up. 

With regards access to a broad and balanced curriculum, Rebin shares the same entitlement as other students and should be given access to a range of subjects, including Maths and English.  Immersion in the new language gives a student like Rebin diverse examples of contextualised language use and, after an initial settling-in period when it all sounds like a jumble of noise, he will begin to hear where sentences end, he’ll notice words and phrases being repeated and he’ll start to make sense of what he’s hearing.  Once that has happened, he will begin to be able to respond to what’s said to him, gradually building up from single words to short phrases to sentences.  In about two years’ time, Rebin will be able to hold a pretty fluent conversation in English, though it will take significantly longer for him to be able to write for academic purposes across a range of subjects. 

Rebin will need support, and the best way of supporting him will be for subject teachers to sit him with peers of similar underlying cognitive ability and to let him follow their lead, whilst making full use of visuals when delivering content.  Translation apps may have a place also – what is needed for a student like Rebin is one where there’s an audio component so he can listen to new words in English and first language, not just see a written translation.  However, given what we know about Rebin’s educational history, translation apps will clearly not offer a panacea.

Thinking forward, Rebin will very soon need to be planning his post-16 pathway.  During the initial profiling, he was asked about his work on the family sheep farm, in case he had liked it and an option to study animal care at a place like Sparsholt was viable.  Rebin, however, said he wasn’t interested in this but didn’t really know what other options might be available.  To address this issues, School could usefully plan in opportunities for Rebin to shadow/talk to students who are currently following the courses he might like to think about for himself.  School could further facilitate with interpreter-supported discussions at his PEP meetings where the options can be set out for him, his views can be sought and he can ask any questions he may have. 

Of course, all the while Rebin plays catch-up with his education, he is still recovering from his experiences of being trafficked to the UK, from his separation from his family and from uncertainties about his future – whether or not he will eventually be granted indefinite leave to remain.  If all goes well, Rebin could, in spite of all the attendant challenges he faces, be successful in forging a new life for himself in the UK, and staff in schools have a key role to play in supporting him to work towards that end.

For advice and guidance on meeting the needs of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children, see the EMTAS website.    

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In this letter to her new born daughter, native speaker of French and Hampshire EMTAS Specialist Teacher Advisor Astrid Dinneen reflects on her first steps as a parent raising her baby bilingually.

Ma chère Elise,

Did you notice the different patterns and music of the languages spoken at home when you were still tucked into my tummy? Perhaps you recognised they were from different classes of language a couple of days after you were born. You see, your daddy speaks to you in English and I mostly speak to you in French, switching to English or a mixture of French and English when your daddy is within earshot in order to include him in our chitchat.

Long before you were born we always knew we would raise you bilingually – not quite strictly using the ‘one parent, one language’ (OPOL) approach where I would solely use French and your father English when around you. This method simply wouldn’t suit our family unit where - so far - I’m the only speaker of French and where English is the only language that everyone has in common. Instead we’ll use our own flexible approach where you’ll see me dip in and out of French and English and perform a lot of translanguaging.

Mixing languages didn’t use to be recommended as it was understood it confused children however advice is changing around this practice which is pretty common in multilingual households. So, rather than being brought up by two seemingly monolingual parents, you will grow up witnessing bilingualism in action in a dynamic, dual language environment where either French, English or sometimes a mixture of both will be spoken, read and written depending on context and audience – something I hope will help model how you too can use the whole repertoire both your languages have to offer.

This is all nice and well however you should know I suffer from a mild case of language attrition. You see, when you’ve lived in a country other than your own for as long as I have and speaking your first language only occasionally you become a little rusty – the words fail to roll off your tongue, you stumble and you fall mid sentence in a mess of grammatical approximations and incomplete idioms. This isn’t helped by the fact there is no cohesive local French speaking community that I know of hence the opportunities to regularly chat with compatriots are somewhat lacking, especially during a pandemic when even your French family is unable to travel and see us. This is definitely a concern when you think about how much input in French you’ll need to even have a chance to acquire it. But what a beautiful opportunity you’ve given me – the chance to reconnect with a language, identity and culture I am determined to pass on to you.

Talking to you in French all the time offers me much needed practice and reassuringly the words eventually come to me naturally even though false friends occasionally trip me up in my sleep deprived state. For example, the term bib in English is very close to the French word for baby bottle (biberon or bibi for short) hence why you often hear me use these words interchangeably! I’m sure you’ll soon join your daddy in making fun of my slipups but these will make superb opportunities for unpicking quirks and comparing our languages – a process which will soon become familiar to you as your metalinguistic awareness develops (that’s grownup for your awareness of how languages work).

Singing to you in French is a lot of fun and is great for repetition, rhyme and rhythm and you particularly love my rendition of Alouette. I’m rediscovering long forgotten songs and nursery rhymes. I’m discovering new ones too including translations of popular English classics such as The wheels on the bus. Interestingly, in French, the mums on the bus don’t chat, they say chut (shush) straight after the line where the babies cry. Can you guess why the translator made this choice? Have you also noticed how the body parts in Heads, shoulders, knees and toes are in a different order in French so it still rhymes? I’m sure translation will soon become another subject of conversation in our home and you’ll soon discover the skilful way we sometimes have to manipulate language and adapt text to suit our purposes (the metalinguistic awareness I’ve already mentioned will help you do just that).

Practitioners in pre school and school settings may consider you as EAL when they eventually get to work with you. This is such a big umbrella term however and children with EAL have varying experiences which lie on a wide spectrum. You will definitely receive a language diet that is different from your peers raised only in English. However, your exposure to French won’t be comparable to that of children born in an exclusively French speaking household either as their input in French will naturally be greater than yours. You will no doubt sit somewhere in the middle with skills and qualities developed through your exposure to two identities, ways of thinking and speaking.

Will you have a preferred language when interacting with us at home or outside the house? Will this change when you start school? Will you tap into both languages to express yourself in the same utterance? Will you be happy to use French in front of non French speakers? Will you enjoy talking about how our languages work? Will translation interest you? Your development of language will be truly unique and one no one can really predict. One thing is for sure though – it’s how grateful I am ma chère Elise for putting French back into my life in addition to being the best thing that’s happened in 2020.

Bisous,

Maman

NB: Astrid is still on maternity leave. 

References:

Babies, First words – Netflix, April 2020

What is translanguaging? – EAL Journal https://ealjournal.org/2016/07/26/what-is-translanguaging/amp/

How to plan for a bilingual baby? [English edition] – Kletsheads, a podcast with Eowyn Crisfield  https://kletsheadspodcast.nl/2020/06/30/how-to-plan-for-a-bilingual-baby-english-edition/

Advice for parents and carers in our guidance library https://emtas.hias.hants.gov.uk/course/view.php?id=64 

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In this blog, Claire Barker, Operational Lead of the Hampshire EMTAS Traveller team, provides an update on the work of the team and gives an insight into future projects.

Hampshire EMTAS includes a very active Traveller team who work closely with schools to support staff with cultural awareness of our GRT communities, to help improve attendance and to engage with GRT pupils about their attainment and aspirations for the future.

In the past, the team has worked in a similar way to our Bilingual Assistants, offering a number of fixed sessions of academic support for every GRT child referred to us.  Over the last year as part of a regrouping exercise, we have evaluated the purpose of our work and reviewed the impact it has had.  We all agreed the children enjoyed support sessions but once we finished, the children did not have face to face support from us again.  This meant that the impact was short-lived.  Unlike children who are new arrivals to the country and struggling with English, our GRT children do not experience a language barrier and can therefore be supported academically by the school day-to-day.  We looked at issues around GRT children and their learning and found that the key recurring barriers to their progress and attainment are: poor attendance, lack of literacy and slower rates of progression in general.  None of these issues can be alleviated by a fixed number of support sessions delivered across half a term.

The crux of working with the GRT communities is trust and we all agreed that this needs to be built up over time, working with the children and getting to know their families.  As a team, we want to work with schools to look at their GRT cohorts and work out how to accommodate small mentoring groups that will be visited at least three times a year.  On each visit, a member of the team will work with the children on literacy, attendance and attainment.  This will be linked to the school participating in our GRT and Showman Literacy Ambassador programme.  This programme is being further expanded to include an interschool GRT and Showman Book Club; this is still in its infancy so watch this space.

If you are interested in the GRT children in your school being part of our mentoring scheme and you are a Hampshire school, for more information please contact Hampshire EMTAS: EMTAS@hants.gov.uk

An important part of our journey moving forward is raising the cultural awareness of both staff in schools and agencies who work with our GRT communities.  We do this in a variety of ways: we have a termly network meeting held on TEAMS where teachers and other professionals can come together to discuss good practice for GRT children within schools and learn about any new ideas and projects.  We are also hoping to hold three GRT Roadshows to showcase good practice across the county.  These will be in Basingstoke, Winchester and the New Forest in October 2021 and we will send out details in due course.

We also hold Cross Border meetings with professionals from outside Hampshire with an interest in GRT communities and education.  These meetings are held on TEAMS and if you would like to take part please contact Lizzie Jenner to be invited: lizzie.jenner@hants.gov.uk  Our next meeting on 1st March is focusing on aspirations and aiming higher with presentations from Darlington EMTAS and the University of Sussex.

Hampshire EMTAS is keen to raise aspirations in our GRT children from an early age and we believe our new way of working through mentoring should help this.  We have coupled this with the introduction of Kushti Careers.  This is a suite of short videos by people who are currently from Romany Gypsy communities, who share their stories of how they valued their education and where it has led them in their lives today.  We hope to add others from the Showmen community, Irish Travelling community and Roma. The idea is to share it in schools to show that there doesn’t have to be barriers to education because of culture and background.

We hope to have one of the presenters of a Kushti Careers video delivering a keynote speech at the EMTAS Conference on 9th July 2021.  Please make a note of this date in your diary.  It promises to be a great day, focusing on best practice for EAL and GRT children in education.

These are exciting times for the Traveller Team moving everything forward, preparing to return to schools and encouraging our GRT families to come on the journey with us so that their children’s futures are aspirational and show how, in the 21st century, our GRT communities are benefitting from expanded horizons and opportunities.

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Regular readers may recall from the Hampshire EMTAS blog a series of journal style articles documenting Sarah Coles’ PhD research into the language learning experiences of UK-born bilingual children.  Now in the third year of her part-time studies at the University of Reading, Sarah has carried out some piloting of key data gathering instruments and is now focusing on recruitment for the data collection stage proper.  In this blog she reflects on what was gained from the pilot phase of her PhD research. 

I write this two weeks into the third national lockdown with mixed feelings about how the pandemic will impact on my research.  Since the last time I wrote about my PhD studies back in 2019, I have kept myself busy reading and writing for my Literature Review and Methods chapters, completing two compulsory research methods modules run by the University, one on qualitative and the other on quantitative methods, and piloting the use of both visual methods and the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) with a small group of Nepali-speaking children who attend schools in Rushmoor.   

I had just finished the pilot phase when the first lockdown happened.  It very quickly took over everything as most children stopped attending school, staff started grappling with the many challenges brought by a shift towards remote learning and we were all prompted to wonder if we should be wearing masks, stocking up on tinned tomatoes or taking day trips to Barnard Castle.    

But much as I dislike how my glasses keep misting up when I put on my now compulsory mask, and much as I rue that I am obliged to continue to live in ignorance of the tourist attractions held by Durham and environs, I don’t want to spend too much time lamenting the impacts of the pandemic.  Here, I want instead to refocus, remind myself and you of the purpose of my research and talk a little about the experience of the pilot phase and what was gained through it from working with the children, their families and practitioners at participating schools in Rushmoor.

My PhD research focuses on UK-born bilingual children.  I aim to document the children’s language learning journeys from a point just before they start school through to the end of Foundation Stage.  This is, I believe, a critical period of the children’s young lives, one that will have a profound and lasting impact on them socially, culturally and linguistically.  It is my hope that my research will lead to new understanding of UK-born bilingual children’s lived experiences of growing up in two languages and that this new understanding will be useful to practitioners working in linguistically diverse Foundation Stage classrooms.

The reason for my interest in UK-born children is due to the ways in which they have appeared to me to differ from bilingual children newly arrived from overseas.  Initially drawing on only anecdotal evidence, it seemed to me that the language development of UK-born bilingual children may differ substantively from that of the international new arrival.  This I saw as important in an educational context mainly because of the way I was hearing practitioners talk about how they were noticing differences in terms of both the children’s home languages and their English.  I started to wonder if UK-born children might benefit from subtly different kinds of support and a good starting point in determining what that might look like would be to first develop a better understanding of their experiences and their needs – hence my research focus.

So how are our UK-born EAL learners different?  Well, for one thing their home languages are often not as well developed as those of children born overseas.  Reasons for this are relatively easy to comprehend if we think about how children acquire language from those around them, both as participants in exchanges and as observers.  In a monolingual context, they will hear only one language spoken both in the home and when out in the community.  A monolingual experience in the early years, such as that experienced by children born in the UK into an English-only family, has informed practitioners’ expectations of typical language development for children in the Foundation Stage.  However, the language learning experiences of children born in the UK into families where a minority language is spoken, eg Nepali, will differ in that they will have some experience of Nepali with family members and friends in the home and in some community settings and some of English, for instance when shopping at the supermarket, playing in the park or attending pre-school.  In the EAL world, they may be classed as simultaneous bilinguals, acquiring their two languages together from an early age.  This means that when they start school, they may not so uniformly match practitioners’ expectations of their language skills in either Nepali or English.  Indeed, research tells us that such children will very likely know as many words as a monolingual child if you count both their languages but if you only count one language, then they may appear to have an under-developed vocabulary.  Interestingly, it has been found that the overlap – those words the child knows in both of their languages – is very small; more typically the majority of the lexicon they have in each of their languages is discrete.

A second difference is that UK-born bilingual children are more likely to share with their monolingual, English-only peers experiences of such cultural icons as Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy and of places such as the local library or soft play centre.  This means they may have more experiences that are shared with the monolingual majority population than a child who comes as an international new arrival as well as some that most likely are not, such as taking part in Diwali celebrations.

A third difference can arise from the child’s position in the family.  The first child is likely to have more experience of the home language than any siblings who follow.  Often, parents report that especially where the first child has started school, more English is spoken in the home, particularly amongst the children.  The younger siblings may in consequence have more English and less home language when they start school.  Parents report that in these circumstances it becomes more challenging to keep the home language going, many observing that their children choose to respond in English when addressed in the home language.

In the pilot phase of my research, the children’s backgrounds were explored through the use of visual methods.  Having first gathered information about the family context from parents, each child produced a visual representation of the people who were important to them and talked about the languages they used with those people.  This ‘social mapping’ activity showed that for some children their concept of family was global, including geographically-distant relatives.  For others, it revealed their personal fascinations, for example one boy depicted a dinosaur as a member of his family, alongside his parents.  When talking about their languages, one child confidently asserted that she knew both her languages whilst another child was much less certain about there being present two discrete languages each of which had its own name.  Talking about this with parents, it became apparent that in this child’s family everyone code-switched all the time, mixing English and Nepali in the same sentence so there was no clear delineation.

In addition to the social mapping, each child was seen on two further occasions to do some story-telling activities using the MAIN.  The MAIN is designed to be used to assess narrative skills in children who acquire one or more languages from birth or from an early age.  It evaluates both comprehension and production of narratives.  Each child involved in the pilot phase had two experiences of the MAIN, one in first language and one in English.  Each time, the session began with a model story using one picture sequence and then the child was asked to tell their own story using a different picture sequence.  Only one child chose to use her home language, Nepali, to tell her own story after hearing the model MAIN story in Nepali; the others all chose to use English on both occasions.  When analysing the children’s stories, the attributes I was able to identify included examples of code-switching, aspects of story structure the children had used and their use of particular grammatical features.

When analysing other data (transcriptions of the audio recordings) by coding them, which is part and parcel of qualitative data analysis, the code “confidence” seemed relevant across the children who comprised my sample.  There was evidence of confidence when talking about their home culture, where clearly the children felt most secure, whereas when talking about school and their learning, especially their experience of early literacy (in English), more hesitation was apparent.

In the data collection for my substantive study, should confidence again emerge as a theme I will have more opportunity to explore it in depth as I follow each child through their first year of compulsory education.  During that time, each child will produce a scrap book documenting their engagement with my research, which they will get to keep at the end.  They will also be party to my field notes and they will share in the co-creation of their own personal narratives, all of which will give them first-hand experience of personal reflection and of research in education, hopefully experiences from which they will derive some personal benefit.  At the end of the year, the MAIN story-telling activities will be repeated, enabling quantifiable comparisons of the children’s languages to be made.   

As the fieldwork phase progresses, I will simultaneously be making observations of the children at school and gathering interview data from the children’s teachers and from their parents, these being key participants in the children’s lives.  Parents’ and practitioners’ views of bilingualism and of the children’s home languages and cultures will be sought with teachers having the opportunity to talk about how they shape and adapt their practice to accommodate their diverse cohort.  This part of my data collection will necessitate great care so as to avoid making unreasonable demands on people’s time.  In exchange, I will be sharing my findings as people see fit, whether it be through an input to staff in participating schools at a staff meeting or through network meetings aimed at a wider audience of practitioners working in Foundation Stage or – already on the cards – at the EMTAS Conference on 9th July.

For now though I want first and foremost to extend my thanks and gratitude to all school-based colleagues who supported me in the pilot phase, and to the EMTAS Bilingual Assistants who accompanied me to work with the children.  I would also like to invite anyone out there who works in a school in Hampshire and who thinks they might like to be included in my research to get in touch.  At this stage, you will need only to have a fair chance of having at least one UK-born child with either Polish or Nepali as their home language starting in your Year R class in September 2021.  And, of course, the willingness in principle to allow me access to your classroom to do some observation, to work directly with participating children as described above (adapted as necessary to be Covid-safe) and to carry out a couple of short interviews with you about your views and experiences of working with young, bilingual learners.

Do email me – with questions, requests for more information or offers of support: sarah.c.coles@hants.gov.uk 

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In this blog, Rosie Cayless, EAL Coordinator at Fernhill School, writes about her experience working towards and achieving Silver in the EMTAS EAL Excellence Award.

I was really keen to gain the EAL Excellence Award Level Silver for Fernhill School but, like everyone else, had no idea when I would have the time to actually do the work needed for this. Claire Barker from EMTAS visited me and went through the different criteria suggesting I could make a folder with all of my evidence and then fill in the online form too, but in less detail, as the documentation was in the folder. This galvanised me into action!

I decided to break the tasks down into ones that I knew as a school we were achieving, but needed to evidence (e.g parental engagement), and ones that required action to bring us up-to-date, such as CPD. 

We arranged an EAL training session for NQTs (led by Claire) and opened it up to NQTs from other schools, which was well-received; we had a cosy pre-Covid roomful of over 30 teachers!

Some areas required a lot of detailed recording such as doing the Bell Foundation EAL profiles for selected students, while others could be demonstrated with photographs from events such as our Global Fair. The more evidence I collected, the more enjoyable it became. 

I would say that the whole process increased my sense of job satisfaction; it was rewarding to examine all aspects of EAL provision and ask: ‘Are we doing the best for our students and their families and what can we improve?’ One of the most useful aspects of undertaking the challenge was to completely re-write our school’s EAL policy, which underpins our whole approach and proved to be a vital part of our application. And the most enjoyable was collating examples of some of the wonderful writing Fernhill students have done in their first language.

The moderation visit was conducted by Astrid Dineen - it was very thorough, one could even say rigorous! But by the end of the (lengthy) session, no stone was left unturned and I was left feeling hopeful that we would gain the award. 

It was great to receive the email with the shiny Silver Award logo attached, Astrid sending congratulations as well as encouragement to go for the Gold Award next time!

Congratulations to Rosie and Fernhill School for achieving the Silver Award!

To find out more about the Hampshire EMTAS EAL Excellence Award, visit our website and our Moodle. 

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