EAL Policy

iBOS English as an Additional

Language (EAL) Policy

The aims of our school are:

• A school where teachers, staff, and students are expected to support and extend the atmosphere of respect, courtesy, the love of learning and the value of friendship that is held dear at iBOS.
• iBOS aims to develop students to become well-rounded individuals. We aim to empower our students with the best tools and resources, making them capable in following and achieving their dreams, to become valued members of our global societies, and to allow them to make a positive difference to the world, wherever they choose to progress to.
• Students leave iBOS prepared for university. They are confident, contributing, and caring members of the global community and they have embraced the challenge of our specialized education. They will have gained the values that equip them to make a positive contribution.

Responsibility of: The Principal

Date Ratified: 02 July 2025

Review Date: 02 July 2027

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to outline the school’s approach to identification and meeting the needs of pupils who are classified as having English as an additional language (EAL).

Definition

In defining EAL we have adopted the following definition: ‘An EAL pupil is a pupil whose first language is not English. This encompasses pupils who are fully bilingual and all those at different stages of learning English.’ EAL pupils may be:

• Newly arrived from a foreign country and school;
• Newly arrived from a foreign country, but an English-speaking school;
• Born abroad, but moved to the UK at some point before starting school;
• Born in the UK, but in a family where the main language is not English. EAL pupils will need varying levels of provision.

Introduction

This policy sets out the school’s aims, objectives and strategies regarding meeting the needs and celebrating the skills of EAL pupils and helping them achieve the highest standards.

Aims

• To give all pupils the opportunity to overcome any barrier to learning.
• To welcome and value the cultural, linguistic, and educational experiences that pupils with EAL bring to the school whenever possible.
• To implement appropriate strategies to ensure that EAL pupils are supported in accessing the full curriculum.
• To help EAL pupils to become confident and fluent in speaking and listening, reading and writing in English in order to be able to fulfil their potential.
• To encourage children to practice and extend their use of English.
• To encourage and enable parental support in improving children’s language skills. Principles of Inclusion iBOS is committed to ensuring that every student, including those with English as an additional language, has equal access to high-quality education. Our curriculum is inclusive, and adaptations are made to ensure EAL learners can fully participate and achieve their potential. We do not view EAL as a learning difficulty. However, we recognise that some EAL learners may also have SEND or additional vulnerabilities. In such cases, collaborative planning between the SENCO, class teachers and EAL leads ensures coordinated support.

Objectives

• To maintain pupils’ self-esteem and confidence by acknowledging and giving status to their skills in their own languages.
• To be able to assess the skills and needs of pupils with EAL and to give appropriate
• provision throughout the school.
• To equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and resources to be able to support and
• monitor pupils with EAL.
• To monitor pupils’ progress each term in class conferences and curriculum meetings to make decisions about classroom management and curriculum planning.

Ethos

iBOS seeks to ensure that all pupils are enabled to have access to a broad, balanced, and relevant curriculum. English is best learnt through the curriculum and EAL pupils should be encouraged to play a full part in all learning opportunities. EAL learners make the best progress within a whole school context, where pupils are educated with their peers. The school structure, pastoral care and overall ethos aim to help EAL pupils integrate into the school whilst valuing diversity. Children that enter the school with little or no English will be given the opportunity to complete assessments and schoolwork in their home language, a program of support for a transition of languages will be implemented when children are secure in their new setting.

• Classrooms are to be socially and culturally inclusive;
• Teachers recognize the pupil’s mother tongue, identifying their strengths and boosting the individual’s self-esteem, and enabling the pupil to become a bi-lingual;
• Staff acknowledges the time it takes to become fluent in an additional language, with a good command of the range of language needed for successful learning and participation in the class;
• We also recognize that support may be necessary beyond the time a pupil appears orally fluent.

Assessment

• The pupil’s needs should be identified during the admissions process:
• The Admissions Officer will report/collect information about pupil’s additional language needs; this will be passed to the subject teachers.
• A meeting with the pupil’s teachers and the parent/carer begins the process of ongoing
• evaluation to meet the individual needs.
• Following the above, lessons will be planned appropriately.
• The subject teacher will keep a record of the pupil's progress and communicate this (together with reviews and new actions) to the SENCo at the end of each term. The school uses a combination of baseline language assessments (e.g., NASSEA EAL Assessment Framework or equivalent) and teacher observations to place students on an EAL development scale. Progress is reviewed termly. Teaching and Learning
• Staff can help pupils learning English as an additional language in a variety of ways:
• Planning differentiated work for EAL pupils if necessary.
• Setting appropriate expectations; encouraging pupils to contribute and give more than one-word

answers.

• Monitoring progress carefully and ensuring that EAL pupils are set appropriate and
• challenging learning objectives.
• Recognizing that EAL pupils may need more time to process answers.
• Ensuring that there are effective opportunities for talking, and that talking is used to
• support writing.
• Encouraging pupils to transfer their knowledge, skills and understanding of one language to another. Access and Support
• All pupils will follow the full school curriculum.
• EAL pupils may be supported through a Learning Support Assistant in the classroom.
• Where necessary, withdrawal support may take place.

Responsibilities

Admissions Officer

To obtain, collate and distribute information on new pupils to relevant teachers. This includes:

• Language(s) spoken at home.
• From the previous school, information on level of English studied/used.
• Details of curriculum at previous school.

Headteacher

Evaluate the policy in the first half of the Summer Term each year and make recommendations, following discussions with the Senior Leadership Team at the end of the term.

SENCO

• Monitor the progress of EAL learners through existing Literacy/subject monitoring.
• Provide support and advice to class teachers.
• Ensure EAL needs are distinguished from SEN needs through careful diagnostic assessment and observation.
• Liaise with parents to promote cultural and linguistic understanding and to support engagement with home languages.

Teachers

• All involved in teaching EAL learners liaise regularly (by using departmental meeting time).
• Teachers communicate all EAL learners' progress to the SENCO at end of each term.
• Parents and staff are aware of the school’s policy on pupils with EAL.
• Relevant information on pupils with EAL is passed on to all staff.
• Training in planning, teaching and assessing EAL learners is accessed.
• Challenging targets for pupils learning EAL are set and met.
• Are knowledgeable about pupils’ abilities and needs in English and other subjects.
• Use this knowledge effectively in curriculum planning, classroom teaching, use of resources and use of resources and pupil grouping. Monitoring progress
• The monitoring of pupils’ progress is shared between all teachers, learning support
• workers and the school SENCO.

• Pupils are also encouraged to set their own targets and objectives to bolster self-esteem and increase accountability.

Supporting the EAL Policy

WHOLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

All teachers will need to consider the language demands, the content of the curriculum, and plan how they can support pupils to develop oracy and literacy across the curriculum. In writing schemes of work and medium-term plans, teachers should consider the following questions:

1. 1. What opportunities are there to explore ideas orally and collaboratively?
2. 2. How can teachers (or additional adults or other children) model the key subject language needed?
3. 3. What specialist vocabulary do pupils need to understand new concepts, and how can this be presented to them in an accessible way?
4. 4. What range of texts do pupils need to read and how can their reading be scaffolded to support learners with diverse needs?
5. 5. What types of written tasks do pupils need to carry out and how can these be framed to support pupils at different levels?
6. 6. Are lessons planned to ensure that any additional adult has a clear role in developing literacy? The role of class teachers is to:

• develop consistent approaches to teaching and learning in literacy and to build increased awareness of the existing language knowledge and understanding that pupils bring to lessons.
• use speaking and listening strategies to develop subject learning.
• plan for teaching and learning of subject-specific vocabulary.
• develop active reading strategies to increase pupils’ ability to read for a purpose and
• engage with a variety of texts.
• model writing for key text types within their subject. Language and literacy experiences of EAL learners
• Some pupils already have good language and literacy skills in two or more languages
• Some pupils are beginner EAL learners who have never learnt to read or write in any language.
• Some pupils have missed some or all their education and have not fully developed the
• language and literacy skills needed for primary school.
• Some pupils have SEN with language or literacy needs. All these diverse groups benefit from teaching that develops their language and literacy so they become fluent in the academic language of the primary curriculum which is the key to academic success. As pupils progress through school, the language and literacy demands of the curriculum increase and pupils need to develop a wider range of language skills, in particular making the transition from spoken to written forms. They also need to be able to adopt different styles (genres) to meet different purposes and audiences which need to be explicitly taught. The school promotes bilingualism and the continued development of home languages, recognising their cognitive, academic and social value. iBOS encourages pupils and families to celebrate linguistic diversity through curriculum projects, international awareness days, and school-wide events.

Beginner EAL learners It takes 1-2 years to become fluent in everyday spoken English, but 5-7 years to develop proficiency in formal, written English. At iBOS we aim for all EAL pupils to;

• immediately feel part of the school
• develop language in context
• experience their full curriculum entitlement

TEACHING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT EAL BEGINNERS

• Provide a classroom rich in oral experiences
• Enable pupils to draw on their existing knowledge of other languages
• Encourage and use bilingual support from other students and staff
• Use translated materials and bilingual dictionaries
• Allow students time to practice new language
• Use visual support of all kinds (diagrams, maps, charts, pictures)
• Develop card sorting, sequencing and matching activities Developing language and literacy skills In order to be fully literate, pupils need to be able to understand how we adapt our everyday speech into formal, written texts. Learning through talk
• Use speaking to clarify and present ideas
• Use active listening to understand a topic
• Hypothesize, evaluate and problem solve through discussion Teaching strategies
• Provide pre and post listening activities such as listening frames
• Use information gaps and other collaborative activities
• Allow students to do some assessment orally
• Ask students to rehearse answer with partner before answering
• Use additional adults to support discussion groups Learning from text
• Read for meaning – inference and deduction
• Understand how subject specific texts are organized
• Develop research and study skills Teaching strategies
• Make the purpose of reading explicit
• Read aloud to pupils
• Teach pupils how to find their way around textbooks and use the index, contents, etc.
• Show pupils how to write questions before starting research
• Help pupils decide whether to scan or skim read or close read
• Ask pupils to transfer information from text to diagrams
• Encourage and show pupils how to use the library for research and pleasure

Learning through writing

• Use writing to think, explore and develop ideas
• Structure and organize writing to link ideas into paragraphs
• Develop clear and appropriate expression at sentence level Teaching strategies
• Make sure pupils are clear about the purpose and audience for their writing
• Point out the differences between speech and writing
• Help pupils use appropriate level of formality
• Give pupils model texts before asking them to write
• Show pupils how to organize writing using planning frameworks, graphic organizers, etc.
• Support extended writing with frames and key connectives to link ideas.
• Ask pupils to evaluate, correct and redraft their writing. Monitoring and Review The EAL Policy is reviewed annually by the Principal and SENCO in consultation with teaching staff and data leads. Pupil progress data, staff feedback, and any changes in national policy or inspection frameworks will inform updates to this policy. Outcomes for EAL students (attainment, progress, participation, engagement) are regularly reviewed by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and reported to governors.