EAL

Provision for children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)

At Sandford Hill our school  motto is “Thoughtfulness and Respect.”  It  is important to us that the needs of every child are met.  Children whose first or home language is not English sometimes require specialist  support  on a short term or long term basis. The EAL team use specialist assessment and  support materials to enable successful integration and progress. When required translators and parental initiatives are also  provided.  Currently there are 15 different languages spoken in our school, additional to English. work closely with the children, class teachers and parents to ensure the  best quality provision for the child. EAL staff work closely with the children, class teachers and parents to ensure the best quality provision for the child.

Parents are welcome to visit our EAL team and talk about their child’s needs. We want parents to come and see the special area and materials we are using to help with the learning of English. We believe that when parents and the school work together, children always benefit. To this end we provide opportunities for parents to be supported at parents evening. We also organise EAL coffee mornings for parents to meet together and share school experiences.

At Sandford Hill we are proud of our pupils’ rich diversity of backgrounds and languages. All of the EAL children have had the opportunity to enter a British Council Art Competition to design their own identity flag. To celebrate, we also organise assemblies and events which our EAL pupils and parents take a full part in. These have included a Mega Mela Day, a Stoke-on-Trent day and one of our main achievements has been the School Diversity Celebration workshops. This large event is delivered on a two-year cycle, with contributions from Sandford Hill pupils, parents and local secondary school pupils.