In this section, the term ‘English as an Additional Language’ (EAL) refers to pupils whose main language at home is a language other than English.

Pupils with EAL will face various difficulties throughout their academic life. Pupils’ aptitude for English will vary, but many will face barriers to learning, accessing the curriculum, and reaching their full potential. Pupils with EAL must learn in and through another language. In addition, they may come from different cultural backgrounds to their peers and face different expectations of language, education and learning.

A child is not regarded to have SEN solely because their home language is different from the language in which they are taught at school.

Support

First are foremost, we provide a welcoming atmosphere for newly arrived pupils with EAL. We also work quickly to assess the level of English known and – where appropriate – provide daily interventions focused on practical, everyday English and survival language. This will be supported using visual prompts where appropriate.

The EAL support is also supplemented by our use of a Language Pathway. This is a set of six resources focused on the following aims:

• Developing children's vocabulary in English, such as knowledge of common nouns
• The ability to structure a sentence in English, using Colourful Semantics as a strategy
• The promotion of children's development of inference, verbal reasoning and thinking skills, using Language for Thinking as a resource 

Example 1: Developing children's knowledge of animals, and the distinction between farm and wild animals

Example 2: Using colourful semantics to structure a sentence

Example 3: Comprehension task to develop verbal reasoning and inference skills