Mainstream and supplementary schools

How mainstream and supplementary schools can work together to support newly arrived communities

The Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCSF) identifies four key areas of activity for mainstream schools with regard to newly arrived learners:

• providing a welcoming environment
• supporting children learning English as an additional language
• establishing and maintaining an inclusive and welcoming ethos and curriculum across the whole school
• establishing and maintaining strong links with parents and carers and communities

Here is one local authority’s guidance on admission and induction to secondary school for newly arrived EAL Learners. (Reproduced with kind permission of Language Development Service in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.) 

Admission and Induction to Secondary School - Newly Arrived EAL Learners (PDF file, 124 KB)

Also, here is a list of ways in which mainstream and supplementary schools can work together to help new families. In all the areas on this list, supplementary schools can support mainstream schools with the right support, resources, guidance and training. You might not be able to arrange all of them. Which might you try first?

Down load the list: Issues for mainstream schools to consider.

(With acknowledgements to the DCSF Standards Site)