teachers..advice on year 1 boy with no English

[conistonoldwoman]

Any EAL input gratefully received. This is a totally new arena for us..independent prep so no easy access to LEA resources. Class of 22 and no TA.
Have drafted in a graduate to help give some support.
Would love to know of best approach to help accelerate his language skills so he can integrate with the rest of the class.
Thank you!

I'm only a TA but while you're waiting...

Dept of Education www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/inclusionandlearnersupport/eal/a0076755/english-as-an-additional-language

What arrangements do you have for fostering friendships in the class? Is there a family in the class who may have some common language skills with the new family? Does the new child have a class buddy?

Maybe a visual timetable would help near the child's desk to help them understand what's going on?

Has the new family/child been asked to help teach a session on their country/language of origin? Maybe they could introduce the class to a few action songs or rhymes in their language? Lots of songs and rhymes must be the way to go.

Thank you for the link.
Visual cue cards and songs have been at the forefront of my mind as well.
He spent a good chunk of the morning doing some phonic work suggested by our SENCO.
Does this seem appropriate at the moment?

Depends on whether he is in the UK for a short while or permanently. If he's here for a year or similar (assuming he is the correct age for year 1), I would consider having him put down a year to reception.

Reception will be learning the phonic sounds and I would think he could do this, even without english language. Seeing "s" and saying ssssss - it's visual rather than relying on understanding a teacher talking.

If here permanently, then keep him in his year group and have the SENCO as much as possible to advise.

I think friendships are the key - he needs motivation to communicate above all. What are his interests? Might be worth picking a friend for him based on the fact that they go to similar activities, place of worship or have passion for same computer game?

Phonics work all well and good but I think he needs the graduate to do ++ help with learning to play games, playground vocab, colours; if a child taps him on the shoulder and says 'You're it', what does it mean, that kind of thing. Game vocab; my turn, your turn, you've won, start, finish, back to the start, back one, miss a turn, champion, skillz, dice numbers, let's play.....sports vocab too: if he already plays some sport it might be a source of confidence as he may have the vocab there.

Our library has dual-language books in some languages - well worth ordering some of those perhaps? He could read the bit in his own language, a friend could read the English page.

Yesterday I was on a course ( am a TA) and they v briefly touched on EAL in EYFS. The few things they suggested (more in 2 weeks time) were a visual timetable (with writing) and a communication fan. ( sparklebox do some ready for printing but you can easly adapt this to your classroom situation). Also if the parents could make a book with a pictures of objects followed by the word in the native language and then the English word. This could be used for word games with an appointed buddy.

Both my DC are raised billingual and go to a language school in the weekend and the advice the teachers give to parents of children new to the UK is to speak as much English as possible and that up to the age of 7 acquiring an additional language comes really easy. After that age it become more academic.

Apologies the above isnt of much help, hope he will settle in quickly!

Please do not use Sparklebox resources
Communication fans/books can actually prevent children from speaking as they remove the need.

Make learning as visual as possible - Jolly Phonics with actions is a good method so are Action Words to develop a vocabulary for simple sentence.
A running commentary when you are working with him
"I'm going to use the green pencil which colour are you going to choose?"
"The blue one!" "Blue like the sky - your eyes - your jumper - the carpet"
"We are having toast for snack. Would you like hot buttery toast?"
one sided type conversation.
Playing with/alongside other children really does get results as they will chatter away not worried if they get no answer
There are lots of resources available depending on the child's home language

Twinkl is a good alternative to Sparklebox, though I thought Sparklebox had been 'washed' these days since it has been sold to someone else?

It hasn't been sold Samuel/Daniel Kinge and his father are the registered owners of the company and benefit from every visit to the site even if you don't download resources.

companycheck.co.uk/company/06164228

Ergh. Thank you. Am now very relieved to be using twinkl - assuming that's OK, maybe I should check [goes to do so]

Thank you all for your advice.
We are working through the jolly phonics with him.
He is a quick learner so I'm sure things will progress really well for him.