English as an Additional Language

EAL (English as an Additional Language) is a big part of our life at Allerton Church of England Primary. Our children - and indeed many of our staff - speak a rich diversity of languages. We have a designated EAL team throughout school who work with children from Nursery - Year 6 to support them with their English Language acquisition. We are proud of the incredible cultural diversity at ACE and seek to recognise many diverse festivals within school - bringing communities together; bringing families into school to share their celebrations and adding to all children's understanding of, and appreciation for, other cultures.

We are always keen to hear your feedback and ideas for our events and celebrations. Please get in touch via the school office. 

Guru Nanak Jayanti

We loved welcoming in members of our Sikh community this morning to celebrate Guru Nanak Jayanti in advance of next Friday. We were joined by Helen Perkins one of our Parent Governors and Mrs Gill from the Gurdwara who recapped the importance of this event and played a little quiz with the children. We shared some food, got to know other children of our faith and allowed parents to mingle and chat! Thank you to all who attended and the hard work of Mrs Reehal and the EAL Team for facilitating this!

Lunar New Year - what did our families have to say? 

'Great opportunity to meet other parents as there have been many new parents in recent years who have moved from abroad. Lovely for children to celebrate festivities related to their culture & share the joy.'

'It was a fantastic morning. Thank you so much for organising the event and for all the hard work that went into it. I feel that this is very important for the Chinese community to feel loved, recognised and accepted as they are both on an individual level and within their cultural community, while recognising one of the main Chinese celebrations of the year. It is very easy to feel like you are one small fish in a big ocean surrounded by people who may not understand your culture or history. To see so many Chinese coming together was a great encouragement and to be celebrated with non Chinese staff was a bonus to be able to share our joy and excitement with them.'

'I just wanted to say a big thank you for such an enjoyable and well-thought out event. I always enjoy coming into school as it's so welcoming and it's great you involve all the different communities in school and highlight awareness of the different cultures' celebrations. I know these sorts of events take lots of planning outside of the usual hectic school schedule so thank you so much for organising this!'

'The food, the atmosphere, the smiles of the children and parents and the overall arrangement are all impressive！ We feel like home, big thanks!'

List of Supplementary Schools

For further information, please contact Wesley Wu on 07891 270385 or email: Wesley.wu@leeds.gov.uk

Families From Hong Kong

Earlier this year we supported the think tank 'British Futures' in their report about welcoming children and their families from Hong Kong. The two researchers spoke to staff, parents and students at ACE about their own experiences and our offer here at our school. Please read the full report here.

For our Persian community this is a special week where we celebrate ‘Nowruz’. Mrs Zand gathered the children together for a quick sweet treat with a friend and our Haftsin table returns to the main entrance where all of our children can look at the many objects upon it. Haftsin in the Persian culture is the celebration of Spring, renewal and the new year!

The 8th March saw our ACE Holi celebrations. The day started with Bollywood dance for any early birds and then Indian drumming at the Reception Assembly. Years 3 &4 were lucky enough to participate in drumming workshops later in the day. Several parents came into their children’s classes to share information and answer questions on Holi. Children celebrating joined parents in the cafe to enjoy some lovely daal made by Mrs Reehal. The afternoon finished with a huge Colour Run organised by Mrs Cosgrove and Miss Patchett. This fantastic event had 140 children participating along with a few parents!

Year One's Farsi story time. 

27.01.2023

This week Mrs Zand adapted a classic English story of Paddington Bear to Farsi. Children were introduced to Paddington's many adventures which led to excited discussions of their own upcoming school trip.

This week Mrs Zand has been working with Farsi speakers in Year 1 on their topic of the 3 Little Pigs. The children’s first language is used to enhance understanding of their work in English!

Refugee Week 2022 - Healing

Last week we celebrated Refugee Week across school. This kicked off on Friday 17th June when Years 3-4 attended a poetry workshop run by Miriam Halahmy on Kindertransport and Years 5-6 attended a workshop run by Michael Rosen about his book 'On the Move'. 
Children took part in a variety of activities within their PSHE lessons including designing petals to welcome 'Little Amal' to Leeds City Centre and posters welcoming those seeking sanctuary to our community. A group of Year 6 went to Leeds Civic Hall to join the 'Lord Mayor's Event' run by the Schools of Sanctuary team. 
 

Leeds School of Sanctuary celebrations June 2022

Miss Hall and Mrs Stott took 9 Year 6 children who all speak English as an additional language along to Leeds Civic Hall for the 'School of Sanctuary' celebration with the Lord Mayor of Leeds. Along with 4 other schools, we presented our school's work towards the 'School of Sanctuary' award indicating that we are a diverse, inclusive place for all children including those seeking sanctuary. The children spoke confidently on the stage in front of lots of others and represented the school fantastically. What an ACE day!

Nowruz at ACE 2022

During the week starting 14 March, there was a slight change in the entrance corridor as a spectacular Haft-sin table appeared - curated by Mrs Zand. This table is laid out in many houses before Persian New Year (on Sunday). Consisting of seven items celebrating Spring and Renewal, the children have been very interested to visit this and to explore the different items. On Friday 18 March, we welcomed many parents visiting their children's classes to share their own Nowruz celebrations before joining together for a cup of tea in the school hall.

Lunar New Year

On Tuesday 1st February 2022 we celebrated Lunar New Year in school. It was absolutely amazing to have many of our families with us in the morning and the children enjoyed food, activities and blessings together. Classes celebrated the event with activities during the day. A HUGE thank you to Mrs Bentley and the EAL Team for facilitating this event and also to our amazing community for coming in such numbers - what a day!

Newsround March 2020

In March 2020, Newsround interviewed some of our EAL pupils to discuss their experience of joining the English education system with little or no English. Sadly, due to the daily announcements of Coronavirus, it did not get aired. However, we did capture a few moments of the experience where children had the opportunity to be ‘miked up’, interviewed and blinded by the dazzling studio lighting!

Story telling in other languages

Story Time in different languages

Mrs Zand has been leading story time for our Farsi speakers in school this week. We celebrate reading and stories in all languages at ACE!