EAL

At Cedar Mount Academy, students with EAL (English as an Additional Language) form a vibrant multicultural community at the heart of our school with  around 50 languages  spoken by our pupils. We have a fully inclusive culture which promotes, values diversity and strives to provide equality of opportunity for every pupil, from our Induction Programme and the first days in the academy, to the end of the academic journey in Y11 and beyond.

Our EAL curriculum aims to equip our EAL students with the necessary linguistic tools so that they become successful in their academic life and be fully integrated both in the academy, community and wider society.

After admission at Cedar Mount Academy, our EAL students join a bespoke Induction programme for assessment and to ensure we provide the best possible start of their academic journey at CMA, “CMA Welcome” ensures pupils make the best start. The assessment of pupils with English as an Additional Language is a continuous process which starts before the pupil arrives in the academy via the admissions, continues during “CMA Welcome” and throughout the academic life of each student. All newly arrived international students are assessed using EAL Star which measures levels of Proficiency in English bands so that we can ensure the most effective EAL provision and interventions are being put in place as early as possible.

Based on the level of support needed, our students can join different interventions such as: Phonics, Reading & language development or homework clubs.   Students with English as an additional language in KS4 also have the opportunity to take an extra GCSE in one of the languages offered: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin only), French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Panjabi, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu.

If you need a translated version of this document or further information please contact Mr. B.Negru – EAL Co-ordinator via email BNegru@cma.bright-futures.co.uk

Translations available in :  Arabic ( عربي ) , Urdu ( اردو ),Italian (  Italiano ) , Spanish (Español),   French (Français) ,Romanian  (Română) and other languages. 

 

Recommended EAL Apps to Support Pupils and Parents/Carers

There’s a wealth of excellent websites, apps and programmes that can support EAL learners and parents/carers. Here are some recommendations:

This will translate text and whole documents for you! There is also a playback feature so the audio of texts can be heard.

Website: https://translate.google.co.uk/

Tutorial Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaBrwzPQbhM

Audible is an audio book and podcast provider which requires a subscription. Texts are available in a number of languages.

Website: https://www.audible.co.uk/

Duolingo helps language learners listen, read, write, and speak a new language. Duolingo has several different mini-games, challenges, and activities to help learn a language.

Website: https://www.duolingo.com/

Memrise helps build up language learners’ vocabulary by memorizing words and phrases. They offer different courses, blog posts, and interactive videos to help ESL students learn real-life phrases and understand language in a real-world context.

Website: https://www.memrise.com/

Say Hi is a translation app, similar to Google Translate. It will translate spoken language and resources into a range of languages, including Cantonese. It can be downloaded onto most devices.

https://www.sayhi.com/en/translate

Young Interpreters Scheme 

With the wonderful range of languages spoken by our School community, pupils are trained at CMA as Young Interpreters to support our EAL pupils – especially those who are new to the School.

Pupils complete four training sessions which explore empathising with pupils who speak English as an additional language, learning how to be a buddy for new pupils, as well as contributing ideas and leading a committee to implement ideas so that we can further enhance the CMA experience for our pupils.

We value the importance of Community at CMA and will ensure that our buddies play a great role in supporting pupils who speak English as an additional language.