Assistant Principal's Report

EAL Learning at GWPS

As a proudly diverse school, with families coming to us from all around the world, we are always looking for ways to enhance the learning opportunities we offer for our students.  One opportunity, is an intensive English as an Additional Learning (EAL) program offered by our teachers; Ms. Guo, Ms. Wong and Ms. Li. This month, four of our students share what it is like to learn at GWPS and the support that our EAL program provides them. They have shared their learning using their first language and in English, to showcase their learning in this area.

Michelle (6A)’s Chinese writing to share her learning journey:

岁月无声，在GWPS的这4个月，我进步也成长了许多。

这次我非常荣幸我们的手抄报能被Mr.Lewis选上校报。在此，我要非常感谢🙏帮助我的老师们、校长和同学们， 他们给予了我鼓励和支持。

因为起初也是怀著一种既兴奋又紧张的心情来到这所学校🏫，会担心自己听不懂同学讲话，上课听不懂老师讲课，交不到朋友……但我发现当我真正加入GWPS的时候，我感受到了大家的温暖。

当我上课听不懂时，老师会再耐心的跟我讲一遍；当我学习上有些问题时，我的同学们也会很热心的帮助我解答疑惑；每天Ms.GUO还会给我上EAL课，帮助我更好地理解课上的内容………

而且我在EAL课上认识了很多朋友，他们都和我一样刚来到这里，英语不是很好，所以我们一起上课会很有趣，也会提起我们上EAL课的兴趣和热情❤️‍🔥

EAL小组上课的内容一般是，帮助我们在学习前讲一遍上课的内容，让我们更好地理解内容；也会以游戏的形式来考验我们的知识储备量；也会时不时让我们做一些手抄报来锻鍊我们的写作能力… …

我们这次登上校报的这两张手抄报，就是我们EAL小组成员一起在Mrs.的指导下完成的！我们在以后会更加努力的学习！！我们一定会不负众望！再一次谢谢🙏帮助我们的老师们、同学们和Mr Catalano！

Michelle (6A)’s English writing to share her learning journey:

In the four months of GWPS, I have made progress and grown a lot.

This time, I am very honored that our handwritten paper was selected by Mr.Lewis for the school newspaper. Here, I would like to thank 🙏 my teachers, my principal 👩‍🏫, my classmates 👩🏻‍🎓 and my friends for their encouragement and support.

Because at first it was with a kind of both excited and nervous mood to come to this school 🏫, worried that I cannot understand the classmate's talking and cannot understand the teacher's lecture, cannot make friends...... But I found that when I actually joined GWPS, I felt the warmth of everyone.

When I do not understand the class, the teacher will tell me again patiently. When I have some problems in my study, my classmates will also be very eager to help me answer my questions🤔. Every day, my teacher Ms. Guo also gives me an EAL lesson to help me better understand the content of the class......

In addition, I have made many friends in EAL class. They are all new here like me, and their English is not very good. Therefore, it will be interesting for us to have a class together, which will also arouse our interest and enthusiasm for EAL class ❤️‍🔥

During the EAL class, we generally go over the content of learning for different subjects again with us, and it let us understand the content better; we will also test our knowledge in the form of games; from time to time, we are also asked to do some hand-copied newspapers to exercise our writing ability... ...

These two handwritten copies of our school newspaper this time show that our EAL team members worked together under the guidance of Ms Guo and completed the work. We will study harder in the future. we will surely live up to your expectations! Once again, thank you to the teachers, classmates who helped us and Mr Catalano!

• By Michelle 6A

 Lucy (5E)’s Korean writing to share her learning journey:

나의학습 경험

안녕하세요제 이름은 Lucy 입니다. 저의 국적은 한국 입니다.저는 EAL 에서 영어를 배우기 위해 수업을 듣습니다. 말하기와 듣기에 도움이 되는 일상적인 문장을 많이 배웠습니다. 날씨와 월말을 배뒀고, 요일도 배웠고, EAL 어떠한 단어로 문장을 만들고 다른 사람들과 같이 이야기를 나누었습니다. 다양한 이야기의 그림을 보았습니다.  감정에 대해서도 배웠고 호주의 유명한 음식과 동물에 대해서도 배웠습니다.  내 감정을 문장으로 말할 때도 개인적인 도전이었다.  나는 새로운 단어를 암기하고 이야기를 쓰고 호주와 원주민 문화에 관한 책을 읽고 이야기를 나눕니다.  우리는 또한 Aboriginal Symbc라는 책에서 내가 몰랐던 흥미로운 단어를 썼습니다. 집에서 EAL에서 배운 내용을 매일 확인합니다. EAL 수업을 듣고 느낀 점은 이제 쓰기와 말하기가 가능하다는 것입니다.  더 많이 듣고 이해할 수 있습니다.  이제 조금씩 영어에 자신감이 붙고 있습니다.  선생님 감사합니다!

Lucy’s English writing to share her learning journey:

My EAL learning journey

Hi my name is Lucy. I speak Korean. I take classes to learn English in EAL group. I learnt a lot of everyday sentences to help with my speaking and listening. I learnt how to say weather and month of the year, I also learned the days of week, and I made sentences with them and talk with other girls in EAL. I looked at the picture of different stories. I also learned about emotions and moods, and learned about Australia’s famous food and animals. It was also a challenge when I talk about my emotion in sentences. I memorize the new words and we write story and share story. We read book about Australia and Aboriginal culture. We also read a book called Aboriginal Symbols and wrote some interesting words I didn’t know. I check what I learnt every day in EAL after school. What I felt after taking the EAL class is that I am able to write and speak now. I can listen and understand more. Now, little by little, I am gaining confidence in English. Thank you teacher! 

•  By Lucy 5E

Lydia’s Chinese writing to share her learning journey:

我叫Lydia, 我是新生。我在中国的时候以为澳洲的小学没有作业，应该很轻松。可是当我来到GWPS的时候，我发现这里的学习并不轻松，学习方式也不一样。再加上我的英文很差，也没有朋友。我很想原来的朋友；在操场上玩也不知道其他的同学们在说什么。在学校上课我听不懂，也不会问，只能干等着，也没有朋友帮我。但是当我来到了EAL课堂，便认识了很多朋友。下课的时候我们会一起玩，在EAL我也学到了很多，比如：怎样能把句子写得更好，还有很多我原本不知道的单词和游戏，也学习到了英文需要使用不同的时态。

刚来的时候，我发现哪怕是低年级小朋友的英语也比我好，那时候我很难过。不过我来EAL一段时间了，英语也比以前好了很多，我相信只要我继续努力学习，我也能赶上他们。我很感谢Ms Guo 每天耐心地教我们，EAL课堂也很有趣。我很感谢学校有EAL这样的学习班，让我们这些原来英语不好的学生的英语变好了；在EAL小组学习的同时收获了得很多的快乐和小伙伴。现在我也能自己写一些总结和段落。在学校，老师们都很关心我，在我不会的时候也会让我从简单的做起。我喜欢我的我的新学校 - GWPS。希望今后我能不用翻译就能写好英文文章，也能在没有老师们的帮助下独立完成各科作业和练习。 

Translation from Lydia’s Chinese writing:

My name is Lydia, I am a new student. When I was in China, I thought Australia’s primary schools didn’t have homework, so it should be very easy. But when I came to GWPS, I found out that the learning here is not relaxed at all, but is different and unique. Additionally, my English wasn’t the best, and I had trouble making friends. I missed my old friends; on the oval, I didn’t even understand what my peers were saying. In class, I had no idea what everyone was saying, and I didn’t know how to ask either, all I did was sit there, and none of friends were able help me. But when I came to EAL class, I got to know more students who played with me during recess and lunch. In EAL classes, I learnt a lot, for example, how to make my sentences better and stronger, and lots of vocabulary and games I never knew. I also learnt that in English, we need to use different tenses for it to be grammatically correct.

When I first came, I realised that even younger year level’s English was better than mine, and that made me feel quite upset. However, I have been at EAL classes for a while now, and my English is so much better than before. I believe that as long as I work hard, I will be able to catch up in no time. I am very grateful to Ms Guo for teaching me patiently everyday and making EAL classes so interesting and enjoyable for us. I’m so glad that the school has classes like EAL to help us improve our English. I gained a lot of happiness and friends while studying in the EAL group. Now I can also write some summaries for my reading and paragraphs of writing myself. At school, the teachers cared about me and helped me start simple. I love my new school - GWPS. I hope that in the future, I will further improve and be able to write English articles well without translations and be able to complete tasks and exercises in various subjects independently without the help of teachers.

Lydia’s English writing to share her learning journey:

At school, I don’t have friend, then I went to EAL.

EAL is fun and happy, I have friends in EAL now.

At EAL, my English small good, I am happy!

I thank Ms Guo, she teaches me every day. I thank school to let me have EAL class.

Now I can write and talk more. I believe my English will be better each day. 

• By Lydia 5B

Jessica’s Chinese writing to share her learning journey:

我的名字叫Jessica, 是5C的学生。今年四月份从中国来GWPS学习。

我刚来学校的时候感觉一头雾水，英语不好，课程设置不同，交不到朋友，听不懂老师上课在讲什么。买个东西都因为不会讲英文啥都没买着。我感觉特别难受，特别孤独，我当时想尽办法让我妈送我回中国。

但是我后来我来到了EAL学习小组，在这里我们每天都有单独的英文辅导课。老师还会针对我的学习给我们留练习作业，我的英文不仅得到了提高，还交到了一些朋友。在这期间， 郭老师和我班里的班主任还有Mr Catalano都鼓励我，我就更有自信了。

在EAL 课堂里，我学到了很多知识，比如：我更了解了澳洲学校的课程设置和要求，还学习很多实用的英文，比如：如何表达自己的情绪，还帮我们总结如何朋友，如何在不同情景里向老师和同学寻求帮助的句子。我们常常在一起练习。 现在我在学校里开心多了，不但交到了朋友，而且还慢慢听得懂同学们讲的一些英文。相信不久我就会跟他们的英文一样好了。

Translation from Jessica’s Chinese writing:

My name is Jessica and I am a student of 5C. I came to study at GWPS from China in April this year.

When I first came to the school, I felt confused, my English was not good, the curriculum was different, I couldn't make friends, and I couldn't understand what the teacher was talking about in class. I couldn’t do any shopping as well, because I didn’t know how to speak English. I felt very uncomfortable and lonely, and I tried my best to get my mother to send me back to China.

But then I came to the EAL study group, where we had individual English tutoring lessons every day. The teacher also gave us practice homework for my study. Not only did my English improve, but I also made some friends. During this period, Ms. Guo, my classroom teacher, and Mr. Catalano encouraged me, and I became more confident.

In the EAL class, I learned a lot, like the curriculum and requirements of Australian schools, and also practical English, such as how to express our emotions, summarize text, how to be friends and how to use different sentence structure to ask teachers and classmates for help in many situations. We often practice together in group. Now I am much happier in school. Not only have I made friends, but I can gradually understand some of the English spoken by my classmates. I believe that soon my English will be as good as theirs. 

Jessica’s English writing to share her learning journey:

Hi my name is Jessica, I am in 5C. April this year I came to Australia. 

When I first came to school, I do not know how to speak English. My English not good, cannot find the friend, cannot understand what teachers say. I want to go back to China.

Then I get into the EAL study group. We learn English everyday here. My English is better and I find more friend. My teachers and principle always encourage me. 

Now I am happy in school. I find good friend and I can understand some what they say in English. 

•                     By Jessica 5C