The Government provides all schools with a sum of money which is determined by the number of children on role who are either from an ethnic minority group or who are learning English as an additional language. This sum of money is called the EMA Grant.

The EMA grant is spent on ensuring that these pupils recieve equal access to the curriculum. This means that these children will recieve additional help either from the EMA teacher- Helen- or from one or the Bilingual assistants- Zsu, Nadia or Rashida to help them to break down the language barriers.

Every term classes are assessed and children's progress is tracked to ensure high achievement of all pupils. Where pupils are achieving levels more slowly than is normally expected, additional support is provided to redress this imbalance. This additional support is therefore provided for SEN and Ethnic Minority children and is reviewed on a termly basis.

These children are supported usually in ability groups and normally a group will also contain children who are NOT from minority groups which means the additional support is of indirect benefit to ALL children in the school.

Helen provides support in class, team-teaching alongside class teachers. She sometimes takes children out in small groups for guided reading or other activities and often addresses the needs of new arrivals individually by creating dual language Power Point books with them.

The Bilingual Assistants -BAs - generally provide support in the class under direction of the class teacher but they sometimes take groups out for speaking and listening or reading activities.

Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible but sometimes accessing the curriculum may require work outside the class.

Here is a great link recommended by our teacher in charge of EMA, Helen. These links to the British Council website are great for adult as well as child learners of English.