Congratulations to Wapping School on a well deserved  Gold EAL Quality Mark!

Wapping High is a small (370 pupils on roll) free school in a building with very few doors on rooms, no school uniform and often beyond Ofsted’s understanding (though the last inspection deemed it good). It is a school with a profound commitment to collaborative working and learning, which is an excellent start when you are thinking about the needs of students with English as an additional language.

It is a school with a predominantly EAL intake and a steady stream of mid phase admissions, including Bengali speakers whose prior education in is in Italy or Spain. I spoke to some of those new arrivals and students from Ukraine. What they told me was that they value the amount of individual attention they get, love their chromebooks with translation facilities. They also speak very highly of their EAL teacher. These students had all been in the school for twelve months or less. Their ability to speak so articulately about what works for them speaks volumes. They also mentioned the help they get in maths and science. In addition, the students are very fond of PE, Art and DT lessons, where they find huge opportunities for language learning.

More than half of staff at Wapping High speak languages other English. That makes them role models as well as sources of practical help.

Staff at the school are acutely aware that good provision for new arrivals is a small part of being good at EAL. Officially 61% of students have EAL, but the schools knows the true figure is much higher and is working on collecting the data better.

Finally, there are two key elements of the school’s cyclical curriculum that are designed for the students it has. There is an emphasis on migration as a long standing element of life in England. In addition, the school’s capacity to raise funds means that the international dimension of its curriculum has allowed students from low income families to visit India, France, the US, Spain and Costa Rica.