English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Is your child used to speaking a language other than English?  

It may seem quite daunting to go to school where the language spoken is different from the one you are used to speaking at home. However, there are many recognised benefits of being bilingual and a large number of children at St Gregory’s speak another language in addition to English, reflecting the diverse nature of our school, and our well established EAL department can help support in a variety of ways both in and out of the classroom.

Our Department

The department is managed by the Inclusion Lead (Mrs Biddle).  It also has two dedicated teaching partners, Mrs Winter who has a TESOL qualification (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Miss Kwiatkowska, whose first language is Polish who is bilingual.  Mrs Prestifilippo, who is a native Italian and a speaker of Spanish, also spends some of her time supporting our EAL pupils. 

How we work

The EAL staff work closely with class teachers to produce individualised programmes of support to ensure that the needs of children with English as An Additional Language are met.  The needs of these pupils are reviewed through meetings with teachers and Parents/Carers.  Specific meetings are arranged to support parents such as ‘Welcome to school’, ‘Secondary Transfer Meeting’ and ‘Helping your child with SATs’, in addition to workshops to increase parents’ awareness of the English and Mathematics curriculum, where appropriate. 

How you can help

There are many ways you can support your child at home and we have provided some useful links at the bottom of the page which you may find useful.  Sharing books and stories is a very simple, effective and enjoyable way of supporting your child.  This can either be done in English, or in your family’s first language which will help maintain and develop it alongside his or her acquisition of English.

If your child primarily speaks a language other than English, we are here to help and if you would like to talk to one of the members of staff on the EAL team, please get in touch via the school office and we look forward to meeting you.

Useful Web Links