At the end of the summer holidays last year, a new family, recently arrived from Venezuela, found their way to our setting. This was an exciting time for us because it was one of our first opportunities to support a child with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Subsequently, during the holiday break, we began to look for guidance from practitioners on supporting such children and their families.
The first day of the new term came, and our administrator helped the mother with the necessary form filling, explaining all about the setting as the day progressed. The mother explained that the father was British and was fluent in Spanish, so that while Spanish was their home language, he would also speak English sometimes with Jake.
In the holidays we had read the National Strategies document, Supporting children learning English as an additional language. We felt confident in explaining the benefits of a child continuing to speak their home language and even gave the family a copy of the document, as it makes the case so well.
At nursery, Jake was excited to play with all the toys and recognised many television characters on children's bags and around the room, which provided him with lots of opportunities to develop language. We asked his parents if they were happy with his language development in Spanish - something we might not have thought about initially, but now we understand the importance of checking his progress in his home language. We also asked for key words in Spanish, but Jake laughed at us if we used them!
We also provided Jake's mother with information about the local area and explained the support offered at the local children's centre. Over the past year she has really supported our setting, coming to our cafe and making new friends. She has helped devise ways of introducing Spanish into our setting and even sang some songs in Spanish to the children at circle time - a fantastic experience which everyone loved!
It is now time to say 'adios' to Jake because he's going to big school. Listening to him speak so well in both Spanish and English, we all feel a little bit proud and envious because it's a real gift!
MORE INFORMATION
Supporting children learning English as an additional language - Guidance for practitioners in the Early Years Foundation Stage is at: www.naldic.org.uk/docs/resources/documents/ealeyfsguidance.pdf.