A whole-school language strategy
Dominique Mann

At Dormers Wells High School in Ealing, London, 82 per cent of pupils have English as an additional language, with well over 40 languages represented. In addition, a significant number of students are refugees, some of whom have experienced bereavement and other traumas while many have had little or no previous education. Language and literacy coordinator Dominique Mann reports on a school survey that helped identify the most effective ways of supporting their literacy and learning.

The approach the school has taken to support students with little or no English has been informed by a specially funded, school-based project to find out about those early experiences of coming into a new school in a new country with a new language. Twenty-two students were interviewed, now confident speakers, who were previously casual entrants with little or no English. We were able to learn about which strategies they found to be particularly helpful in their first few weeks and have incorporated our findings into the school's training programme for new staff to encourage future good practice.

The students unanimously felt they had been welcomed at school. Some subjects were new to many students such as drama, art and PE. Some of the ways of working were also unfamiliar: group and paired work are not activities that new arrivals have been used to. Students commented on how much easier it is for new arrivals when a classroom has helpful labels around the room which reflect the particular subject. One student realised he was in a geography lesson because the word 'geography' was written at the front of the class and he was able to use his bilingual dictionary to check its meaning.

Students mentioned the use of visual aids and gestures as being helpful as well as having bilingual texts and bilingual dictionaries. Other strategies cited were the translation of subject specific vocabulary and translations of useful phrases.

New arrivals at Dormers Wells School are given 'buddies' who, where possible, share the same mother-tongue language in recognition of the important role that this plays in conceptual development. Casual entrants who are new to the country attend an induction programme for one period a day for about six weeks. This programme enables students to familiarise themselves with the ways of the school and introduces them to unfamiliar subjects.

National Literacy Strategy objectives, such as improving accuracy, are also incorporated. Students are shown how to use items such as their vocabulary books where they are encouraged to translate words into their own language or use symbols. Spelling activities take place weekly in term time in key stage 3.

In the school, focused talking activities are incorporated into most lessons. This is why the induction programme stresses to new arrivals the importance of oral and aural work in the learning process. Many of our students have not had the experience of, for example, conducting experiments or peer-reinforced activities which are obviously familiar to others. This is why we model activities such as role-play and provide frameworks for oral presentations.

In addition, the ethnic minority achievement department profiles all new arrivals and gathers information from them on their language, prior educational experience and whether or not they are literate in their mother-tongue. On each profile, some useful strategies are suggested to help staff when working with individual pupils: for example, specific techniques to help them access unfamiliar texts. These profiles are displayed in the staff room to help staff to differentiate their work for these pupils.

Literacy remains high profile through a fortnightly literacy focus at staff briefings which I use to highlight a specific language point. Form teachers then introduce them to their students in form time while displays around the school reinforce learning. Sometimes, with a member of staff, I might model an aspect of the literacy strategy and encourage staff to use and adapt it to their own curriculum area. I was delighted when a newly qualified PE teacher adapted a KWL grid (what do you know, what do you want to know, where do you look?) for his lesson. This sharing of ideas means that as a staff we can learn from the good practice of all curriculum areas. All our students can only benefit from this shared approach to literacy.
 
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