‘English: Key to Integration in London’ programme funded by the Greater London Authority and European Union
Hounslow Language Service Ltd and Lampton Teaching School have worked jointly on this successful pilot project to produce a range of courses for beginner teachers, lead practitioners, teacher trainers, mainstream teachers and teaching assistants. These courses aim to develop the capacity of schools to increase the levels of literacy and academic English at Key stage 1, 2, 3 and 4.
As part of the course, participants completed some between session tasks which are now available for sharing. These resources focus on the use of pictures and different types of key visuals for developing different types of thinking and language.
EAL pupils, ranging from beginners to advanced learners, need help to articulate their ideas and to use particular forms of language. They benefit from tasks which make explicit the learning that needs to take place. Key visuals are learning frameworks which model target language and provide a structure (scaffold) to support understanding and access.
The aim is to add to these resources over time so that we can share ideas and resources as a community of practitioners in raising the achievement of EAL learners.
In addition, there are some examples of frameworks for planning content and language as well as sample EAL policies that may be useful for schools looking to develop this aspect of their provision.