Catton Grove Primary School
ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
At Catton Grove Primary School we are very proud of our diversity with approximately 25
languages being spoken in our school by about 200 pupils.
The EAL department aims to celebrate every child’s nationality and we do this in many ways.
We have recently opened our brand new EAL library where children can find some of their favourite books such as the Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Tom Gates series’ in their mother tongues.
Come and give us a visit in the EAL room in the main building across from Foundation Stage.
The library is open every morning from 8.45- 9.00am and 3.15-3.30pm. Children are welcome to borrow a book to read at home.
The PE department is running an exciting EAL PE club every Tuesday lunchtime. This term children for Years 2 and 3 have been invited to participate. Children learn new vocabulary and skills while developing their social and communicative language.
Our EAL story cafes are designed for the children and their parents to enjoy a story in their mother tongue, a craft and some delicious homemade snacks – watch this space for one coming soon!
_JPG.jpg)
The Department of Education definition for EAL:
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 for EAL:
English as an additional language (EAL) refers to learners whose first language is not English. The learner may already be fluent in several other languages or dialects. They can be pupils arriving from other countries and whose first language is not English.
Therefore, these definitions cover the following:
-
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.
-
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 (i.e. bilingual children).
It is important to recognize that:
-
Children who have British citizenship can still be EAL.
-
If parents write on their child’s admissions form that the child speaks English as a first
language, when it is clear that one or both of these parents speaks another language, the
child is very likely in fact to be EAL, and it will be necessary to check this. Please contact the
EAL department for more information, we are always happy to clarify any doubts or
answer questions you may have regarding this.
Open morning for the new EAL library
New EAL Library
We are so excited to tell parents about our new EAL library. The books the children love in our main library are now available in many different languages for your children to borrow and read . Come and have a look on the open day. Languages include French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Portuguese ,Lithuanian German, Hungarian, Arabic and others
Day of Welcome and Refugee Week
Refugee Week Celebrations.......
As 30% of our pupils in our school are EAL(English as an additional language) we always celebrate biodiversity?
During the Day of Welcome and Refugee Week:
- We all took part in a special assembly.
- We took part in the live webcasts with authors
- In KS2 we read 'The Waiting Place' a book that inspired us to talk about refugees.
- In KS1 we read other books like 'What is a Refugee?', 'My name is not Refugee' and 'The proudest blue'
- Reception, Year 1 & year 2 did a 'Suitcase activity'
- Year 3 and year 4 did 'Our Welcome Wreath' activity
- Year 5 and year 6 prepared 'Welcome cards'
- In the EAL department, we made together a Welcome poster, suitcases, 'Ways I can welcome people into the community (house activity), booklets about Refugees (the reason- the sacrifice- the future) and 'The Compassionate or Not?' activity. The whole school has been enjoying a special week to celebrate our friends and classmates from all over the globe.