If you have newly-arrived, non English -speaking students joining your class, it can be helpful, when thinking about access strategies, to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine for a moment that you are a student starting your first school day in a country which is foreign to you:

• How would you be feeling?
• What could people do, to make you feel welcome?
• What could teachers do, to help you understand daily routines and expectations – the times of the day, where you should sit, what you need to bring and have on your desk, how to present work in your book, what happens at the end of a lesson, homework?
• What could teachers do, to help you to understand some language and content from the lesson? How could they communicate key ideas to you, bearing in mind you share little or no common language?
• How could they help you do written work? What materials or help could they give you to help you get something down in writing?
• How could they check what you’ve learnt that lesson?

When you have newly-arrived students, please do remember that they will need you to put access strategies in place, otherwise they are likely to understand little or nothing!

Contributed by Pippa Whittaker

Pippa, who leads inclusion within the Academy, has recently had a book published. Please click on the image below to get more information on this.