The St Mark’s Academy curriculum intent is to empower all students including students who are new to English and refugee students as well as a large number of unaccompanied EAL students. EAL students arrive at the Academy with different levels of English and prior education. We strive for all our students to achieve academic and character excellence through drawing on their rich and varied backgrounds and delivering an inclusive, broad and balanced curriculum which enables every student to excel in their future career. We have a team of specialist staff consisting of 2 full time specialist teachers and 4 teaching assistants to support our EAL students who are newly arrived in the UK (usually less than two years in the country). 

When an EAL student is offered a place at the academy, they are invited to come for an interview alongside their parents/ carers with the Director of EAL. A detailed interview takes place to understand prior education, home languages and proficiency in English. The student is then invited to sit some initial tests in the form of assessments in Maths, spelling, non-verbal and a written test in English. Based on this, the need for support is then assessed. 

EAL students who arrive at the academy in Years 7-10 (up until the Spring term) are placed in mainstream classes. Students in need of support receive in-class support and additional English lessons every week until they become competent in their level of English (level D of Proficiency scale) when they return to mainstream lessons. They are provided with bilingual booklets and a buddy when they arrive at the academy, preferably a student who shares the same language. Our big ideas of everyday vocabulary and curriculum vocabulary taught alongside language structures are revisited over the syllabus. This allows EAL students to sequence learning and understanding by building on previous knowledge. Lessons are also differentiated with scaffolding and independent learning is encouraged through providing students with additional resources such as booklets that will help with understanding the curriculum in mainstream. Learners are also provided with essential tools to be able to access the curriculum through simplified texts or bilingual resources in English-key texts in KS4.  Termly spelling tests and free writing tasks are used to assess progress. Results of our assessments are shared with staff so that teachers are able to plan for students as individuals and support all students to achieve their full potential. The overall percentage of bilingual students is 54% in our school. Home languages are valued and are seen as an essential tool to support bilingual and multilingual students to access the curriculum by the use of bilingual dictionaries and translated resources. Home language GCSE’s are also promoted and arranged for students to take to improve their employment prospects.