ESOL
We are proud of our highly regarded ESOL programme at Campbells Bay School. Students in the ESOL programme may be NZ-born or migrants/International students from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Our learners from varied cultures and language backgrounds are taught by highly qualified and experienced ESOL teachers and teacher aides in a learning environment that is supportive of learners who speak English as an additional language.
Children will often acquire conversational competence after a year or two of learning a second language. It takes between five and seven years to gain the academic language skills required for engaging with the curriculum. Each curriculum area has its own particular language, and support is needed to become proficient in reading, writing, expressing ideas, vocabulary, and structures of math, science, social studies, etc.
The ESOL programme is taught at levels appropriate to the student’s level of proficiency in small groups of students from similar year levels and with similar needs. The specialist team recognises that there are varied language needs from foundation to more advanced academic language, and this is reflected in the delivery of the programme, being responsive to each student’s needs, and taught at the level students are working at. This means that students may be withdrawn from class to receive two, three or four sessions of intensive language support per week or per term, or they may remain in class where strategies, adaptations and considerations that will continue support at a distance are shared with and provided by the classroom teacher.
All ESOL lessons cover listening, speaking, reading, and writing and are delivered in ways that support classroom inquiry and language to access the New Zealand Curriculum. This is achieved through engaging in aspects of vocabulary, structure, grammar, and conversation.
Newly introduced in Term 2, 2024, ELiP is a programme for students at the very beginning of their English Language learning journey. ELiP (English Language Intensive Programme) is a full-immersion programme where new-to-English students in years 3-6 spend a concentrated block of time in the ESOL space, learning English comprehensively with an experienced teacher and Chinese-English bilingual teacher aide. Once students reach a point where they are able to work more independently in their own classroom, understanding their teacher and peers and contributing to the classroom discussions, students graduate ELiP and then receive support in the ESOL withdrawal groups.
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The Ministry of Education English Language Learning Progressions Pathway Record of Progress can be found by clicking on this link.
How can you support your child?
Read to or with your child daily (their English texts and other books/materials), asking questions and having them
retell the story in their home language.
Talk about your child’s day. Continue to speak in your home language at home, as research proves if they do, they will have a better chance of success learning English. That said, time to revisit and practice a newly learned language is also important.
