Primary’s pupils speak 25 languages

Over the past few years, Discovery Primary School has welcomed many pupils who have English as an Additional Language and currently celebrate having 25 different languages spoken by children of 27 different ethnicities.

This has been recognised with the EAL Quality Mark Gold Award from the EAL Academy for their excellence in teaching and learning provision for these children.

The multicultural school is very proud of its latest achievement as recognition of its hard work with supporting not only EAL pupils, but also their families.

Children’s cultural heritage, religion and language skills are embraced and celebrated through a range of school events each year, such as European Day of Languag- es, Diwali, The Commonwealth Bake Off and Language of the Month activities.

The parents of EAL pupils are also invited to these events and encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences with the whole school, further developing children’s learning and understanding of all cultures.

The teachers value and build upon EAL pupils’ previous learning experiences, as well as their skill in their mother tongue. These children are therefore able to overcome any English language barriers to learning and make accelerated progress.

Pupil Language Ambassadors are appointed in each year group, who are proud to be part of their school community, sharing ideas on how to improve their learning.

Sara Mclaughin, the EAL Academy assessor, was impressed with the work that has been put in place to make EAL children and their families feel welcome.

Staff and pupils with the award.