This is our first newsletter of the new school year. We are delighted to be to spending much more time in schools in person this term, but also maintaining our online offer. Wishing you all a happy and healthy Autumn term.
In this newsletter
- What the 2021 School Census tells us about EAL pupils
- Free resources
- The EAL Quality Mark
- Forthcoming online training
- Major update of our EAL Handbook
What the 2021 School Census tells us about EAL pupils
Since 2016 the groups whose share of the English state school population has declined are mostly the ones where the first language is nearly always English. Is it time our education system recognised that we are a multicultural and a multilingual country? And that we always have been? Read our blog about this issue.
Resources you can access for free
The free resource downloads section of our website includes:
- Tackling misconceptions about EAL pupils
- Questions to ask parents of a new arrival
- Strategies for different types of newly arrived pupils
We also highly recommend these five wonderful free videos from Maslaha for parents of EAL pupils in English, French, Polish, Slovak, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali, Slovak, Sylheti, Turkish and Urdu.
The EAL Quality Mark
The EAL Quality Mark is a self-assessment tool for schools supported by a visit from one of our assessors. A sign of its growing popularity is that seven of our last nine blogs have featured schools winning the Gold Award for the EAL Quality Mark. The most recent winner was Barton Hill Academy, the first school in Bristol to receive the Gold EAL Quality Mark Award. We also delighted to announce the first ever secondary school to win the Gold Award is Chorlton High in Manchester. You can find out more about the EAL Quality Mark in this recorded webinar featuring seven schools with the EAL Quality Mark.
Accredited online EAL training
Our six unit online EAL course, accredited by the University of Greenwich, is now in its ninth year. We will welcome the next cohorts on 15 September and 15 November. Email contact@theealacademy.co.uk to request a booking form.
Short online EAL courses
Our range of short online courses (requiring approximately 12-15 hours of study) are available to complete at any time:
- – EAL for Teaching Assistants
- – EAL and SEND
- – EAL Beginners in the Classroom
- – Leading EAL in Secondary Schools
- – Leading EAL in Primary Schools
- – Early Years and Diversity
- – EAL, Ofsted and the Legal Context
- – EAL in an International School Context
- – Plurilingualism
- – The Achievement of Pupils of Caribbean Heritage
- – EAL in Wales (the latest addition to our course catalogue)
EAL Handbook
This month we are proud to publish a major update of the EAL Handbook, including a brand new section on EAL in international schools. Order your copy now.
If you would like to discuss any of our courses or resources, please get in touch (you can email me or call me on +44 (0)20 3488 2700). Most of all, stay safe.
Rebecca Smith
The EAL Academy
e: rebecca@theealacademy.co.uk
t: +44 (0)20 3488 2700
w: http://www.theealacademy.co.uk