Chapter 13: Educational Support Within the School Day

The EAL programme is specifically designed to teach English skills as well as enabling our multilingual learners to access the Primary curriculum units more easily. The school curriculum is made accessible by a team of EAL teachers, who assist students in building up their English academic language over time. Children are taught within the classroom setting or in small groups based upon their English level. EAL learning starts already in Early Years classes. The focus may first be on oral language development, but gradually evolves to developing reading and writing skills as well. English beginners will also work with translation software so they can keep up with lessons in other classes in their strongest language whilst learning the school language too. This is what is known as translanguaging. Translanguaging is a flexible, multilingual approach that empowers our students to develop new languages by connecting them to the languages they already know. More advanced students of English make use of this translanguaging approach too, to keep their home languages growing for their future.

To ensure every child reaches their full potential, the EAL team is also working inclusively and collaboratively with all teachers and students to strengthen their academic language across different subjects in the classroom.

We recognise that all children are different and many will require, at some point in their education, some additional support with academic, social skills or behaviour. We are however, a mainstream school and have limited possibilities to support children who have additional needs. The Learning Support team provides support to students, helping them to integrate and participate in mainstream classes. This support may be one-to-one or in small groups.

As a truly international school, ISH is committed to the development of every student's home language(s). This is normally the language their parents have used to communicate with them since they were born, to tell them their first stories, to comfort them when they were afraid or hurt and is often the same language spoken by their grandparents. Research has proven that a strong home language contributes to the successful acquisition of new languages. It also provides students with access to their own culture and family background, giving status and value to their multilingual and cultural identity.

Within the curriculum there are opportunities for students to use their home language either individually or in groups, through planned moments and through translanguaging. Students participate in a variety of meaningful learning opportunities, which include researching, preparing presentations and sharing their thoughts through speaking and listening activities. This learning takes place across the curriculum, where students are encouraged to make the connections between the content of the learning that is happening in English and their home language. Wherever possible the students are supported by their peers who share the same home language. Secondary students also support the programme and we actively encourage parents and members of the wider ISH community to become involved.

We recognise that although our programme within the curriculum provides the students with an opportunity to use their home language, there is limited scope for them to further develop their language skills. For this reason we also have an optional after-school home language programme which requires additional payment. During this programme the students concentrate on the expansion of their ‘Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency’ (CALP) and the development of their reading and writing skills in their home language. These skills are transferable between languages and are necessary for students to move beyond the social to the academic. We offer this programme in as many languages as possible although this is dependent on the availability of qualified tutors. To find out more about this programme you can contact the Primary office: primary@ishthehague.nl.