Context

1. Context Surrey Square Primary school in on the border of the largest housing estates in Western Europe. The estate spans 280,000 square metres and has 2,700 homes. The Aylesbury is considered one of the most notorious estates in the United Kingdom. Tony Blair chose to make his first speech as Prime Minister here, in an effort to demonstrate that the government would care for the ‘poorest elements of society’. The area is now being regenerated. Our school has 472 pupils who speak 39 different languages. 112 of these are children aged 3 - 5 57% are registered as having English as an additional language although there are some that did not disclose correctly.

3. GOLDSMITHS Teacher training module • Examine ways to develop our own teaching of EAL pupils. • Examine ways to further facilitate the learning of pupils in the Early years. • Examine how our children use communication skills that are not reliant on speaking a common language. And how as teachers we need to cater for this. For example, gestures, movements, visual representations

4. Objectives and outcomes of activities To communicate their own culture and to understand about the culture of others. Both the visible and invisible. Gregory Cool A boy visits his family in another part of the world. He eats different foods and experiences different things to the ones he is used to at home. His experiences feel strange and he feels homesick. The children discussed the food they ate at home. They noticed that their were some children who ate the same things as them but also understood the concept that some people ate different things. Teachers bag What do you know about the teacher? I am a woman, I am older, I have brown eyes. (visible) We then talked about the idea of finding out more about the teacher from the contents in their bag. Book, Oyster card, photo, keys, make-up, sweets etc. The children guessed who the photo was of, why did I need an Oyster card, what were the keys for? (invisible) Through this activity they had found out more about me and my life.

5. We read the poem ‘Skin Again’. We asked the children to draw on a body outline what they looked like. i.e. what could be seen by others. On the same shape but underneath the outer person, the children made a collage of all the things that represented them and their culture. They then compared them with their peers and examined things that we have in common (sameness) and compared differences.(the other). Connections chart I am a girl(v) I like football(i) Things about Me Things about Me Things that we have in common I have short hair(v) v We have 2 sisters(i) I live with my mum and grandma(i) I live with my mum and dad (i)

6. Outcomes from this courseaprendizadoatraves do curso • Consciência da importancia de promovermos a valorizacaodo fatoridentidade. E comopromovermos. The importance of promoting children’s awareness of their identity and how we promote that. • Diferentesprofissionais e diferentesexperiências Beneficial to see what other professionals did in their settings around the topic of ‘culture’. • Professional impact Clear reflection on how EAL children benefit from using visual cues, body language and the various ways of communication withoutspeaking. The early years curriculum recognises this importance.

7. METHODOLOGY APPROACHMETODOLOGIA Providing for pupils with EAL • Good Early Years teachers are generally good at providing for EAL pupils because much of what we do is kinaesthetic or visual because the children can’t read the printed word. A good example of this is how children can recognise ‘logos’, such as : MC Donald’s, shop logos, signs and symbols before they can read. • Play is important – Play makes an immense contribution to children's development in lots of important ways. The right to play is a child’s first claim on the community. Play is nature’s training for life. No community can infringe that right without doing deep and enduring harm to the minds and bodies of it’s citizens. We need to educate that children do learn from play. • Early years – Acquisition of language understanding Acquiring language is a gradual, lengthy process, and involves a lot of apparent 'errors'. These 'errors' are in fact not errors at all, but a necessary part of the process of language acquisition.

8. How does your language change in different domains?Diferenteslinguagensusadasemdiferentesambientes • Playground language is it rude or just different? The playground environment provides natural opportunities for change of pace and speech. Playgrounds that promote different types of play are vital for a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development because they provide children with places to congregate and communicate. • Eli as a learner of the English language – e.g. ‘sick’ No word for sick, sick in the traditional English sense, youth talk. • Language – spoken and unspoken (body language) Much of how we communicate (about 85-90% of our day) is through non-verbal communication and it is also the first level of language that ALL children develop before spoken words. Non-verbal communication is extremely important for young children to master because the ability to read facial expressions, gesture (e.g., pointing), communicate with a peer while being active on the playground, or express their emotions appropriately is what helps children to develop their earliest friendships during playtime.

9. Our activitYATIVIDADE Lesson Introduction Children were asked about their visual features and their likes and dislikes. They weregiven a body template. Main lesson The children were asked to draw their own features on the front cover of their body template, e.g. eyes, hair, skin colour. Then the children could access different pictures for them to cut and stick onto the inside of their body template. They had to choose a selection of things that represent themselves, e.g. favourite fruit, toy, colour, etc. Discussion Children compared their body templates and discussed their similarities and differences both visible and invisible.

10. OTHER ACTIVITIESOUTRAS ATIVIDADES • Red nose day activities – Helping/Thinking of ‘others’ House activity – Children were asked to put themselves in someone else's shoes. What would it be like to live in a house with very little space and few possessions. Outcome: children developed an awareness of ‘the other’ (differences and similarities).

11. How do we promote intercultural understanding. COMMUNITY EVENING – ●School working successfully with parents and children. ●Help parents change their preconceptions of the ‘other’. ●These occasions can still be tokenistic clichés of cultures. How do we integrate the communities within our school further? Why is the teaching of multiculturalism so important? ●Global understanding. ●Future employment- competing in the global market ● Increase opportunities and choices. A FINAL THOUGHT To be able to develop a sense of belonging and understanding, a group should not be just determined by their ethnicity, but also by their values, beliefs and other things that make them who they are.