At Worple we believe in the importance of learning languages from an early age as we know that children pick up languages much more easily the younger they are. We teach French across the school; helping to foster a love of learning languages.
Many of our pupils are EAL and we celebrate all the diverse languages at Worple. The children contribute to displays around the school so that all children are able to share in the enjoyment of different languages. Staff liaise effectively together when considering the needs of pupils with EAL. To ensure that they are able to fully access the curriculum, staff work together to provide resources to support children starting at Worple.
At Worple talking and listening is an integral part of lessons and provides lots of opportunity for children to develop their communication skills. Visual timetables are provided and stories in both the child’s first language and English are provided to help them settle in and pick up lots of vocabulary quickly. They are introduced to simple instructions in English and their mother tongue, which the class teacher and support staff go through with them to enable them to understand classroom routines and what is expected. Individually tailored support is provided through a variety of resources including, accessible texts, ICT, video or audio materials, dictionaries and translators.
We enjoy working in partnership with families of our EAL pupils and make links between home, school and our local community. Children are natural linguists and with our support children learning English as an additional language have the best foundations for becoming truly bilingual. Pupils are encouraged to transfer their knowledge, skills and understanding of one language to another, building on their experiences of language at home and in the wider community, so that their developing uses of English and other languages support one another.