St Andrew’s Prep school, Eastbourne

St Andrew’s Prep school in Eastbourne is the first school with a boarding house – where most pupils are multilingual- to be awarded the Gold EAL Quality Mark and only the second prep school to receive this accolade.

The school has had a growing EAL population since the 1970s when its first Iranian pupil arrived. Its growingly diverse intake includes pupils who speak one of the twenty-one languages represented, such as Cantonese, French, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, or Ukrainian. The staff also speak a range of languages including Afrikaans, Flemish, French, Italian and Spanish.

The pupils I spoke to were full of praise for the both the buddy and language ambassador systems, both as new pupils supported by them and subsequently when they are able to use their language expertise and experience of school to help new pupils.

In each of the classrooms I visited teachers had a wide range of strategies to support EAL pupils: thoughtful seating plans, key words routinely translated in presentations, effective modelling of subject specific language and very supportive use of visuals.  Etymological approaches enabled pupils to draw on their own first language resources when encountering new academic terminology. Teaching is highly inclusive with curriculum adaptation used where necessary. The school is highly aware of the cultural issues it needs to address. For instance, like most prep schools, St Andrew’s Prep offers a wide range of sports, including traditional English sports such as cricket. So it goes out of its way to explain these unfamiliar sports to EAL pupils and their parents, who might otherwise be very bemused by it.

The English of the parents of EAL pupils ranges from the highly professionally competent to the very basic and the schools adapts effectively to ensure all of the parents feel included and understand how their children are being supported. Parents are also seen as a multilingual resource that benefits everyone’s learning.

The most striking thing about St Andrew’s EAL provision is the consistency. Senior leaders, middle leaders, classroom teachers, a governor, a parent and pupils all tell and live the same story about how multilingualism is valued and encouraged.  At the heart of this kind of consistency there is usually a very influential and effective EAL Leader. That is exactly what St Andrew’s have in Sara Lozano-Arcas