English as an Additional Language (EAL) at Kings Road

We are immensely proud of our school community, with its rich diversity and cultural heritage.  Amongst our families, 32 different languages are spoken and our pupils share cultures from across the globe.  In recent years, we have celebrated the heritage of our pupils, during dedicated ‘Heritage Days’, focusing on Vietnam, Mongolia, Zimbabwe and the Jamaica! 

(map representing pupils in one Y5 class)

We have also developed a special relationship with local, elderly residents - learning about our Old Trafford community, past and present.

Our school context (at March 2021):

• 657 pupils on roll
• 538 EAL pupils (82%)

We recognise the spectrum of English understanding and competency, across Kings Road, and we tailor our teaching to meet the needs of individuals.  Dedicated EAL TAs extend our provision, with specific intervention for those new to English, including International New Arrivals (INAs).

Our whole school language focus underpins teaching and learning… and vocabulary development is central to every lesson.

We work on the premise of ‘never assume’ – supporting learning, across the curriculum, with visual…  

and tangible resources…

(Y2 children exploring the ‘patchwork sack’, in Julia Donaldson’s ‘Jack and the Flumflum Tree’)

We follow ‘Talk for Writing’, using ‘story-mapping’ and ‘imitation’ to embed text…

Year 5 - 'The Giant Tree'

and we use ‘Editing stations’ to promote self-assessment and improve the standard of our writing.  

Y6

Y2

‘Talk 4 Maths’ and ‘Ruler of Reasoning’ sessions allow pupils to express themselves orally - and encourage the use of symbols and actions to reinforce mathematical language and concepts.  We have even developed a ‘Talk 4 Maths’ visual dictionary of key terms!

As always, ‘visuals’ play a key role for our EAL pupils, in supporting their understanding, and we are proud of the progress they make!