Sydenham Primary awarded Gold Standard for EAL

Sydenham Primary school in Leamington Spa have achieved the GOLD award - the highest accolade available to schools working towards the EAL Quality Mark Award (English as an Additional Language). The award recognises a schools' work with pupils, parents and communities whose first language is not English.

EAL specialist, Sara McLaughlin, from The EAL Academy in London visited Sydenham Primary School on 29 November, 2018. The inspection visit was rigorous; consisting of meetings with staff members, EAL parents, pupils and EAL governor, Nikki Ajibade from the Warwickshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS). Tracking data, children’s work and practice against policies was also closely scrutinised.

In her email to the school, Sara wrote: “The Gold award is only given where the school can demonstrate that supporting pupils with EAL is part of a successful whole school culture of teaching and learning, leadership and working with parents.”

Some of the key strategies mentioned in the full report include:

• promoting the first language both in terms of celebrating linguistic diversity but also as a tool for learning
• engagement with EAL parents to support school learning effectively at home
• the Language Ambassador’s Scheme
• Talking Partners Oral Language Programme
• Talk for Writing (Pie Corbett) which is embedded across the school
• EAL training provided by an experienced EAL specialist (EMTAS)

There are over 27 languages spoken in Sydenham Primary and nearly half the pupils in school are learning through EAL.

The school, assessed by OFSTED as outstanding in 2011 and 2015, demonstrates that when a whole school approach is adopted and practice is embedded, the strategies and techniques that support EAL learners also work for every pupil. Quality EAL provision has all the hallmarks of quality first teaching. It is often said that what is good for EAL is good for ALL learners.