“Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savour their songs.” Nelson Mandela

All students at Orchard Mead have full and equal access to the Curriculum, whatever their religion, ethnicity, first language, special educational needs and gender.

We aim to ensure that:

• all ethnic groups recognise standard English and use it confidently and competently
• pupils are able and encouraged to use their first language where appropriate to improve access to the curriculum
• good relationships exist between the school, parents/carers and community, to promote community cohesion.

Our curriculum is designed for learners, whose native language is not English and who live in the UK. These learners have different language needs arising from their diverse language and educational backgrounds. Our program is established to provide students with the vocabulary and grammatical structures needed for both, school performance and everyday living. It develops language acquisition and cognitive academic language skills that require constant, intensive, guided practice. The program provides the EAL students (English as an Additional Language) the opportunity to grasp the academic, social, and cultural aspects of the English language through the teaching of reading, writing, spelling, speaking and listening.

The goal of the program is to help students develop language skills necessary to be successful students, future employees and members of society.

Our Big Ideas

The major themes that run through our subject:

The English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) education program is designed to provide equal educational opportunity and is recommended for students of limited English proficiency. The program offers instruction in English for speakers of other languages, so that they will develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and comprehension.

Students will learn:

• to pronounce the letter sounds;
• to use greetings and every day vocabulary;
• to understand English grammar;
• to read, understand and obtain information from short texts on familiar topics, common signs and symbols;
• to respond to simple written narratives, statements, questions, instructions;
• to listen to other people and speak to convey information, feelings and opinions on familiar topics, including when in discussion with others;
• to write simple sentences correctly and complete simple forms;
• to write to convey information with some adaptation for the intended audience, using correct punctuation, grammar and spelling;
• about English life, culture and customs;
• about the world, other cultures and customs.