Newly-arrived children and young people

• Entitlement to EMTAS support
• Admissions guidance
• Bilingual learners in Hampshire (context)

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  Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) supports local authority schools in Hampshire before, during, and after the admittance of a newly-arrived pupil, for whom English is an additional language.

   

Who is a new arrival?

We use the term 'New arrivals' for pupils who have recently come to the UK from their country of origin. These will include asylum seeking or refugee pupils. However, the term can also be used to include bilingual learners entering Nursery or Year R who were born in the UK, but for whom this is their first experience of an English speaking environment; and less often for bilingual learners who have transferred to Hampshire schools from other parts of the UK.

'Bilingual' refers to all pupils who have access to, or have a need to use two languages at home and at school. It does not imply fluency in either language and includes pupils just beginning to acquire English.

New arrivals may fall into one of three categories:

1. They may have had no or limited education in their own country and may be illiterate or semi-literate in first language. Their illiteracy may be the result of lack of educational opportunity and does not reflect low ability.  Their initial rate of learning may be slow because of the many adjustments they are making to their new situation.

2. In the second category pupils will have attended school for long enough to be literate in their own language. They may have had some instruction in English but this may have been learned by rote. It may be that if they are able to 'read' an English text their comprehension of what they have read will be limited and they may be unable to pronounce the words on the page. They may expect the atmosphere of the classroom to be formal, discipline to be firm and tasks to be clear-cut, demanding accuracy in copying or in reproducing information. It may be difficult for them to work at tasks involving imagination or free expression. They may be unused to working in groups or at individual tasks and completing GCSE tasks such as research or investigation.

3. The third category is made up of those pupils who have a consistent educational background and know a lot of English. Their English language problems and needs may be complex. Although some may be able to communicate in English easily with others, there may be irregularities in their pronunciation and grammar, the latter often being related to features of their first language.  Such irregularities may persist over many years.  The work of Dr Lynne Cameron who researched the writing of Advanced Bilingual Learners (ABLs) is summarised in the Diagnostic Writing Tool (DWT) which lists the common areas of difficulty experienced by these pupils.  

Entitlement to EMTAS support

Buy back

Part of the conditions of the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) requires that a proportion of the total budget is offered to schools on a devolved basis. This can  be used to buy-back into the Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service and enjoy the benefits that a central service can offer or the money can be retained by the school, under strict criteria. The LA asks schools for their preferred choice on a three year basis.

View our Service Level Agreement  151kb with schools who elect to 'buy back'.

Schools who have bought back into EMTAS

Once referred, each newly arrived pupil is entitled to an early profiling assessment and for those pupils whose first language/ethnic group is in our central service there is an entitlement to a total of 10 hours support - bilingual assistance or specialist teaching or a mixture of both. This support can be spread out over a number of weeks, as appropriate. A Bilingual Assistant or Specialist Teacher will normally contact the school to discuss the pupil's timetable, and arrange a mutually convenient time.

For those children and young people who do not speak one of the core languages we offer support from a senior BIlingual Assistant. The focus of this, carried out over up to 5 x 2 hourly sessions, includes training for teachers and teaching assistants; signposting for parents; and where appropriate whole-class group work on how to welcome a new arrival which may also include producing a welcome booklet.

An agreement will be drawn up between Hampshire EMTAS and the school detailing the focus of the support, time-scale and personnel involved.

At the end of the 10 hours a review of support will be carried out. Hampshire EMTAS school-funded top-up provision is available to schools who would like to buy in further bilingual support. We can discuss this at the end of the agreement review. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the New Arrivals Manager at the Basingstoke office.

Schools are also entitled to a free training session for their staff. The Bilingual New Arrival Conferencing (BiNAC) sessions can be tailored to suit your requirements. Please contact our Training Manager at the Basingstoke Office.

Schools who have not bought back into EMTAS

EMTAS does NOT support schools who have not bought back. However, EMTAS has a selling services section and our selling services manager will be happy to discuss your requirements

Admissions guidance

Pupils for whom English is an additional language are entitled by law to schooling in the same way as any other pupil. Schools and LAs are obliged to offer places in accordance with their published admissions policies.

Bilingual learners in Hampshire (context)

Pupils for whom English is an additional language in Hampshire operate in a range of social, linguistic and educational contexts.

They have a wide range of cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. There are over 100 language groups in the county and these languages can have their origin in any continent or country.

Many bilingual learners have been born in Britain and may be second or third generation members of well-established and organised communities. Some are recent arrivals from their country of origin. Some of these recent arrivals are asylum seekers - accompanied or unaccompanied. Others may be returning from extended stays abroad. Many bilingual learners are British citizens or have dual nationality. Others belong to short stay migrant communities.

Some bilingual learners are literate in their mother tongues; others may only speak it. Many children use two or three languages other than English, e.g. operating in mother tongue for communication at home or in the community and using a different language in religious contexts.

Children may be at different stages in their second language development:

• completely new to English

• experienced in English as a foreign language in their country of origin and literate but inexperienced users of spoken English

• orally competent in social, conversational situations but needing support in taking on a range of subject-based language 'registers', e.g. scientific investigations, mathematical problem solving

• orally fluent but still developing literacy skills in English

• orally fluent and literate in English and other languages

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