Childs Hill & Claremont Federation

EAL (English as an Additional Language)

Multilingualism at Childs Hill Primary School

At Childs Hill, we believe that language is an important part of identity. Establishing the importance and value of first/home language is paramount at Childs Hill. For our multilingual learners to feel confident and have positive self-esteem they need to feel proud of their bilingual skills and heritage. These are important skills that they can utilize during their learning. 

Please see at the below of the leaflet regarding promoting bilingualism and the benefits of maintaining and developing home languages. These leaflets are published by Aberdeen EAL service and are available in different languages.

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (English)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Urdu)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Bangla)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Romanian)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Punjabi)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Italian)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Polish)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Arabic)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Slovak)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Gujrati)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Russian)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Turkish)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Latvian)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Bulgarian)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Somali)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Pashto)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Chinese)

Be Bilingual Leaflets - Promoting Home Languages (Spanish)

Support for Mid Phase Admissions & Multilingual Learners: 

Here at Childs Hill, we do our best to cater for each individual child’s learning experience using and adapting different methods of pedagogy. We also provide small group intervention sessions to ensure effective opportunities for speaking and listening, reading and writing.

  • Nursery and Reception 

The structure of Early Years enables children to learn English rapidly. There is also an additional intervention programme called ‘Talk Boost’. The Talk Boost approach helps children to develop not only their understanding and use of language, but also other important skills like attention and listening and turn taking, which can help ease them into the school environment. 

  • Year 1 - Year 6

After arriving at Childs Hill, children are supported during the first few weeks by the EAL Lead, the class teacher and are allocated a ‘buddy’ (preferably with the same first language) who will show them around the school and help them understand the new school routine. They will also be given access to ‘Flash Academy’ which is a digital learning platform to help develop English language skills. Phonics and EAL assessments are carried out during the first two weeks of the child joining the school to assess the best way to support the child.The child will then be able to access support for phonics in the ‘Read Write Inc’ programme and support for everyday language through the ‘New arrivals programme’. Children will have access to Bilingual dictionaries and Google Translate via their chromebooks (Yrs 4-6) to allow them to use their first language to deepen their understanding.

Flash Academy: 

At Childs Hill, children who need additional support with their English language skills are given access to Flash Academy. Flash Academy encourages English language development through fun and engaging activities, to learn social, curriculum vocabulary, grammar, phonics and handwriting. It can be accessed on any device and children can use it at home alongside their family. This can help parents improve their English and be involved in their child’s learning. 

New Arrivals Programme: Three afternoons a week for half an hour

To support basic communication skills for everyday needs, at Childs Hill we provide a New Arrivals Programme. Children are introduced to different greetings, names and places in and around school, stationary and classroom language. They begin to learn names of body parts, verbs, family etc. This helps to increase the child’s everyday vocabulary and language progressively week by week. Children will be monitored and assessed to track progress and next steps.

All of this work supports the children to make rapid progress and very quickly become part of the Childs Hill success story.