Wiiliam Byrd Primary School in Harlington fully deserves its Gold Equality Mark award for a host of reasons. However, I need to start by mentioning the two pupil guides on my learning walk. One has been learning English and learning in English for four years and the other one just two years. They were, nonetheless, wonderfully articulate and helpful guides to a lovely school as well as a testament to the school’s success in meeting the needs of its EAL pupils.

The school is very good at managing change. It needs to be with a pupil turnover rate that can be as high as 35% a year.  There are currently 70 refugee families with children at the school, many of them living in hotels having recently arrived in the country via the nearby Heathrow Airport.

I have long held the view that a casual admission system for EAL pupils needs EAL teacher involvement in order to ask the right questions and get all the information needed. William Byrd proved me wrong. A dedicated admissions officer working alongside a multilingual administrator collect all the information needed, as well as being friendly and known faces the next time the parents and pupils come in.

Wherever I went on my walk around the school with my two guides I saw happy EAL pupils enjoying learning. When I had the opportunity to talk to a group of EAL learners about what they valued most about the school, the consensus was the way it helps them develop resilience. No, that is not my gloss on what they said. It is the complex abstract noun they were all confident to use.

William Byrd is a suburban London school with a suburban London intake and a delightful village school atmosphere that helps new arrivals to settle in quickly and develops its pupils’ English and skills very well. Whichever way you look at, it is a fantastic school in which to be an EAL learner.

Finally, Key Stage 2 results are not everything. However, the attainment of EAL pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 is above the national average for EAL pupils, despite the pupil turnover being a long way above the national average.