News

Manny Vazquez and Andy Harvey have just  returned from Doha where they were  delivering  training   at the Al Maha Academy for Boys. Participants came  from the Ta’lluum Group of schools which also includes Al Maha Girls and the Al Jazeera Academy. The 80 Participants included year leaders in Primary and subject leaders in Secondary. The theme of the programme was  developing academic language and literacy for EAL students. The aim is to build capacity among senior staff members, who will then cascade the training in their own areas. If you are interested in this training for your school please…

We are now taking bookings for 8 great new courses running between now and December. Subjects include... WELCOMING BILINGUAL CHILDREN INTO EARLY YEARS SETTINGS DEVELOPING LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM THROUGH GEOGRAPHY ACHIEVING THE NEW STANDARDS FOR EAL STUDENTS IN GCSE ENGLISH To see there full list, view course details and book, please visit our Courses page.

Over 100 participants came to our Summer Conference at St Mary’s University. The Keynote speech, by Professor Constant Leung of King's College London, gave a thought-provoking and thorough overview of assessment in relation to EAL learners over the past 30 years. He highlighted key issues that need to be considered and drew on Australian, European and American models to provide a useful framework to guide our thinking as we seek to  develop an assessment system that would promote the effective teaching and learning of EAL learners. The workshops were described as “enjoyable and full of useful, practical ideas” It was…

Our International work continues this year as Andy Harvey jets off to Kings College in Alicante at the end of August. His course follows on from the successful training sessions led by Manny Vazquez last year – on ‘Language and Literacy for Advanced EAL Learners’. This year Andy is focusing the training programme, for 40 staff, on ‘Developing Academic Language and Literacy’. We know he will manage to pack in some culinary ‘workshops’! If this subject interests you, we are arranging a similar course -  ‘Developing Grammatical Accuracy’  here at Lampton   on  1st December  2015. Visit our new website for…

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This year the focus of our Annual Conference, to be held at St Mary’s University on 18th June, is EAL Assessment. Our Keynote speaker, from Kings College, London, will be evaluating the recent changes in the National Curriculum Framework and the effect on school-based assessment of EAL students. Workshops include EAL Tracker for Early Years and Foundation Stage KS1/2: Identifying Factors in relation to Background and Culture that can affect EAL Pupils’ learning KS3/4: Key elements that need to be included when assessing EAL pupils in Secondary school Foundation Stage – KS4: The role of mother-tongue assessment in determining SEND…

This teaching pack has been designed to use with all pupils, including EAL at KS2. The topic is presented in a lively and informative way with collaborative activities which aim to develop both language and literacy skills. All the teaching programmes include useful lesson plans and photocopyable resources which are also available on CD. This pack can be used as a stand-alone Geography resource or alongside other materials. Other teaching packs in this series include ‘The Tudors and Stuarts’ – all available from HLS Resources.

EAL learners continues to increase, and their needs vary widely, from new arrivals with little or no English to third generation EAL who need advanced academic language skills. Some arrivals have had significant prior education and others have serious gaps in prior learning. As schools’ capacity to provide specialist withdrawal teaching is reduced, teachers need even greater expertise to support these pupils in lessons. The demands of the new curriculum make an even greater demand on pupils’ language skills. EAL in the Mainstream Classroom is a suite of programmes designed to enhance teachers’ language skills so that they can provide…