Our team and what we offer

• Direct teaching of pupils with English as an additional language
• Advice on monitoring Ethnic Minority Achievement
• Advice on ongoing assessment of pupils with English as an additional language
• Advice with the practical aspects of pupils new to English
• Advice on cultural, religious and language issues
• Support for parents needing information, knowledge and translation in order to participate actively in the education of their children
• Advice on equality and race awareness. Dealing with racist incidents
• Contributing to whole school policy issues i.e. Equal Opportunities, Race Equality
• Updating schools on ethnic minority issues
• Advising schools on training and awareness of strategies for raising achievement of minority ethnic pupils
• Providing training for education authority, governors, community groups providing a wide range of resources on loan from our centre.

EAL (English as an Additional Language) Coordinator - Angela Cooper

Angela provides central information, support and guidance on the issues surrounding ethnic minority achievement including the processes of second language acquisition, training and development for staff, advice and assessment of new arrivals.

EMA Teachers and Language Support Assistants

Specialist teachers have an expertise and understanding of the teaching and learning process of additional language acquisition, but mainstream teachers have the pupil knowledge and the overall responsibility for the attainment of all pupils. The development of collaboration and partnership between mainstream and EMA staff is essential to ensure pupil learning throughout his/her school week. The EMA teacher may work with partnership teaching in class support and/or withdrawal groups, but these strategies should be agreed with the individual schools.

Our teachers work with the individual schools to:

• Assess language acquisition levels and identify pupils who are underachieving
• Provide specific teaching support for identified pupils
• Circulate information on focus pupils to relevant staff and keep them informed of the progress
• In consultation with mainstream teacher, set termly language related learning targets and evaluate progress
• Work in partnership in the planning and delivering of sessions
• Work with parents to raise the achievement of their child

Our team of specialist staff at the EMA come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Many have previously taught abroad as well as in the United Kingdom and in so doing have gained valuable transferable skills and perspectives which further enhance the service provided. The team speaks a total of sixteen different languages from Afrikaans through to Zulu and is representative of our increasingly diverse community. All our team have undertaken specialist training and are constantly updating their skills and keeping abreast of current learning and development.

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