EAL/D 

Across Term 1-3, four staff members completed the annual EAL/D Project run by the Corporate Office. In this project, schools propose an area of research in relation to the teaching and learning needs of EAL/D students at their school. If selected, as we were this year, a small team ogranises an action research project across the duration of three school terms, with an aim of implementing the findings more broadly across the school following the project.

This year, Alison Laird, Misty Findlay (EAL/D), Rebecca Forrest (History) and Irene Sha (Mathematics) collaborated to complete the project with a selected Year 8 class. Prior to the project's implementation we analysed baseline date collected from their Year 7 results, Term 1 results this year and performance in the Single Word Reading Test (SWRT). Consequently, we explored the impact of explicit vocabulary teaching leading towards structured written tasks that applied the gradual release of teacher support. Students had repeated encounters with these targeted literacy strategies across all subject areas to allow for familiarisation of process and to develop confidence and acquisition of vocabulary. In addition to the project team, the implementation of the project was strongly supported by class teachers, particularly Jonathan Bailey (PDHPE), Aidan Bondfield (Geography), and Steve Botto (Science).

The results were quite positive. Student comprehension of new words and speaking English in class both shows an upwards trend. Student perception of teacher support also increased through our implementation of these practices. All students indicated that sentence and paragraph writing is easier now because of vocabulary interventions and instruction. Moving forward, into 2027, a more structured approach for the testing of vocabulary and reading comprehension will be implemented within the EAL/D faculty. Additionally, the faculty and whole school will engage with a greater range of strategies for the explicit teaching of vocabulary, moving from word to sentence to paragraph writing.

Alison Laird 

Head Teacher EAL/D