At the beginning of the present academic year, the EAL department had a multicultural cohort of 90 students, from as far afield as Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Chile and Russia.
Using unique high-performance techniques, engaging and relevant teaching methods, differentiated learning opportunities and focused homework tasks, teachers in the EAL department helped 65% of the students to graduate into the mainstream curriculum.
Also, whenever students graduated, their new subject teachers were given a bank of bespoke strategies to ensure that the EAL graduates were suitably supported when integrated into full-time English-spoken lessons.
Furthermore, all EAL students were encouraged to sit the set of Cambridge University ESOL examinations, including the Young Learners Exams, Key English and Preliminary English Tests. These exams are universally recognised as rigorous and accurate performance measures of students’ English proficiency levels, and certificates are awarded to attest the progress of non-English speakers.
The results have just been published and they are terrific.
This year ALL of the students who sat these tests PASSED, with:
- 50% achieving scores between 70% and 84%
- 26% achieving scores between 85% and 94%
and
- 24% scoring higher than 95% in the tests.
This is a tremendous set of results and testament to the hard work and enthusiastic approach to learning by the EAL students and teachers at the British International School Pudong.
By Alan Pritchard, Acting Head of EAL