Best Practice

Strategies for EAL success

Inclusion Middle leadership
For many schools, it is vital to have a robust strategy for supporting students who have English as an additional language. Hayley Jarvis explains some of her approaches, emphasising that it is not just about literacy.

Park View School is located in the heart of N15, the UK’s most culturally diverse postcode and arguably one of the most socially deprived areas in the UK. It is considered the most ethnically diverse area in Europe. Just over 77 per cent of our school is EAL (English as an additional language) and there are approximately 50 different languages spoken at any given time.

Consequently, leading the design and implementation of the key stage 3 EAL programme in such a diverse setting seemed like an overwhelming challenge. However, by the end of my first year leading key stage 3 EAL, 68 per cent of our pupils below a Level 4C had made a minimum of two sub-levels of progress in English, many of whom were illiterate in their first language; 43 per cent had made either three or four sub-levels of progress in one year.

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