“We have a fundamental belief that our students can compete with any other child in the country.” “We are a school for the local community and we are proud to be at its heart” – Richard Paul, Headteacher.
At Greatfields School, we strongly believe that all students should be given equal opportunities regardless of their ethnic, cultural and socio-economic background.
Greatfields School is committed to providing appropriate provision of teaching and resources for students whom English is an additional language.
What is “EAL”?
The term EAL (English as an Additional Language) is used to refer to students whose first language is not English. The EAL Department has been an integral part of Greatfields School since 2017. Any student that has lived in the UK for 3 years or less classifies as “EAL” at Greatfields School and will receive ongoing support from the department.
Our Aims
The EAL Department’s main aim is to empower our students to allow them to experience success in all areas of school life. We assess and identify each individual EAL students’ learning needs upon admission. This ensures that these students receive the appropriate support that will help them to access their subject’s curriculum. The level of support given is based majorly on their English proficiency level and overall academic ability.
EAL Support
We support our students both in-class as well as outside of lessons. Some of the ways we support our EAL students are by; adapting and translating lesson resources, delivering one-to-one and group interventions, reading intervention, phonics intervention, and in-class Teaching Assistant support.
Staff CPD Training
The school’s EAL Co-Ordinator, Ms. Begum, delivers training to all staff to develop the awareness of the needs of all EAL students. This includes learning how to correctly adapt the curriculum to make it accessible for the students and she also offers classroom support tips.
Monitoring Progress
We regularly monitor the progress of our EAL students to ensure they are making progress and to identify any further needs or concerns. This is achieved by the termly assessments. Any student not making appropriate progress on these assessments will prepare for and sit ESOL Entry 1, 2 and 3 exams in Year 10/11.
Post-16 Transition Journey
We also support our Year 11 EAL Students with their college applications to help them through their transition from secondary school into college and other post-16 options.
In addition, we arrange trips to Barking and Dagenham College that is local to most of our EAL students. This gives them the opportunity and space to learn about college, courses, careers, etc. confidently and at their own pace rather than on hectic open days and evenings.
Trips
School trips are an excellent way to get EAL students to learn skills beyond those which can only be taught in a classroom, as well as experience things that they might not get the opportunity to outside of school. For example, exploring London with sightseeing, learning how to travel on the Tube and practising speaking in public.
Clubs
We run after-school enrichment clubs every week, including Games Club, Drawing Club, Homework Club and Origami Club.
Social Interaction clubs poster
ESOL for Parents
The EAL Department also offers parents the opportunity to receive free ESOL classes delivered by the EAL Co-ordinator, Ms Begum.
Please view the poster below if you are interested in joining: