St. Joseph’s is a truly multicultural school with learners from more than 30 different countries in attendance. Our learners come from a wide variety of backgrounds. As well as our British population, we count among our numbers: EU Migrants; Refugees; those seeking asylum; and British-born children who speak a language other than English at home. We are proud of our diversity and our students who speak around 50 different languages.
We are committed to meeting the needs of our students with English as an Additional Language and the role of the school’s EAL team is not only to welcome and integrate new arrivals, but to support and challenge them across all curriculum areas. We aim to promote English language acquisition alongside academic achievement.
We endeavour at all times to:
- Be proactive in removing any barriers that stand in the way of our EAL students fulfilling their potential.
- Provide our EAL students – particularly our International New Arrivals - with a safe, welcoming environment where they are accepted, valued and encouraged to participate.
We recognise the difference in children’s backgrounds and circumstances and offer support through a fusion of taught English lessons, focused intervention sessions, in-class support, differentiated resources and personalised curriculums. We believe that this approach allows all our learners to access an enjoyable, useful and successful school experience.
We are also committed to providing the opportunity, where there is a language qualification available, for our EAL students and those with other languages to sit a GCSE in their native language as an additional subject.
EAL policy
Our EAL policy aims to:
• Set out how our school will support and make provision for pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL).
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in providing for pupils with EAL.
If you would like to discuss the EAL policy in more detail please contact the EAL Lead, Mrs J Hopkins at jhopkins@st-josephs.bolton.sch.uk
