EAL

Over the past few years Sandroyd has welcomed overseas pupils from Spain, Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark and Thailand.

International pupils either come for one year in order to improve their English, or they will stay in order to complete their education in the UK.

The school is aware that these children can not only be great geographical distances from their homes but can also face social and cultural differences on arrival.  The aim is to equip these children with the support and linguistic tools they require from the outset to make this transition as enjoyable as possible. 

Initially, pupils are assessed to ensure the standard of their English is sufficiently high to benefit from the normal curriculum.  Where appropriate pupils are offered EAL lessons in place of mainstream subjects with a specialist teacher.  Most pupils will receive one EAL lesson per week, however, when additional support is required some pupils will have two lessons per week.

Lessons are tailored to the individual pupil’s needs and support the school curriculum.  Sessions are based on the core skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.  Each term the aim is to continue to build each pupil’s vocabulary and strengthen their grammatical foundations.  In addition to celebrating their own, students are encouraged to learn about British culture and traditions and EAL lessons sometimes focus on these.  

Where appropriate, pupils are offered the opportunity to work towards attaining Cambridge English Certificates such as the Preliminary Certificate (PET) and the First Certificate (FCE).  An exam preparatory course will be followed in these cases.