At Priorslee, 23.72% of pupils have English as an additional language or are exposed to an additional language at home.
EAL
At Priorslee Academy we strive to constantly celebrate the multilingual, multicultural and multi-faith school community. Our school community helps us to reinforce key messages, values, and are one of our most valuable educational resources. The EAL and SEND teams work together to ensure there is no confusion between EAL and SEND. The induction of new arrivals is the responsibility of the EAL Subject Leads Miss Burton and Mrs Emery, and is designed to address they social, emotional and academic needs of pupils.
Induction for each pupil is flexible. The length varies according to the individual pupil’s needs, but all new arrivals are allowed at least a week to settle into their new class and find new friends before joining a rigorous programme that reinforces the social English they are learning from other pupils and teaches them explicitly about the English needed for the primary curriculum.
The Department of Education definition:
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 English as an additional language (EAL) refers to learners whose first language is not English.
These definitions therefore cover the following:
– Pupils arriving from other countries and whose first language is not English
– 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.
These pupils are often not entirely fluent in terms of their literacy levels.
If you feel your child is exposed to any other languages at home from any member of their family, please let our administrative team in the office know.