Stop Worrying About the EAL Learners in Your School and Start Making Sure Your Teachers Have the Practical Tools They Need to Support Them Effectively

When I first started teaching I worked in Central London.

It was a great school with wonderful staff and a fantastic cohort of learners.

And it was also very challenging.

A great place to learn as a new teacher.

One of the challenges was teaching EAL learners.

The school had children from sixty different countries.

A high proportion of them spoke English as an additional language, with proficiency varying from low to high.

Some learners arrived at the school mid-year, without any English at all.

Others were fluently bilingual, only needing help on rare occasions with things like unusual idioms and academic sentence construction.

As a class teacher, you had no option but to become skilled in supporting EAL learners.

We were lucky enough to have a fully staffed and highly knowledgeable EAL team, who were always on hand to offer support.

In my second year, I put together my EAL Toolkit.

That resource, which you can find on my website for FREE, brought together practical strategies I’d discovered, learned and developed myself.

It’s now been viewed and downloaded more than 300,000 times and, along with my book How to Teach EAL Students in the Classroom, has helped teachers in the UK and around the world find methods that work when it comes to creating success for EAL learners.

My Teaching EAL Learners Knowledge Base gives you all the insights from that book for FREE.

It’s a one-stop shop you and your staff can use when developing your EAL practice.

Something I’ve been helping schools with in-person for over ten years, through my Creating Success for EAL Learners training.

Language Learning is a Continuum, and Any Teacher Can Help Any Learner to Move Along It, Towards Success

There’s no question that supporting EAL learners can be challenging.

Especially in the context of whole-class teaching.

In my experience, many teachers find that the familiar techniques they use to support the children they teach don’t necessarily work if their EAL learners are at an early stage of language development.

This can be frustrating.

And it can make teachers feel like they aren’t able to meet the needs of their EAL learners in the way they want to.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is.

I’ve seen it across hundreds of schools.

And it’s to be expected.

Supporting EAL learners, particularly those who are at the start of their English language journey, is tricky.

That’s why having targeted, tried-and-tested strategies is so important.

When I run my Creating Success for EAL Learners training, the focus is on two things:

For me, all training needs to find the balance between expert input and interactivity.

When I deliver my EAL training, I aim for a 50/50 split.

Fifty percent me sharing my expertise, insights and guidance.

Fifty percent staff discussing, reflecting and trialling strategies for themselves.

This is crucial.

Without the interactive element, staff don’t get the opportunity to contextualise what I share in light of their own knowledge, skills and experience.

And they’re the ones who know their EAL learners better than anyone.

I always begin the training by focussing on three questions:

Answering these gives us the foundations we need to successfully support EAL learners, and to sustain that support over the long-term.

If we can get into the mindset of our EAL learners, if we can use the key principles to guide us, and if we understand what language development looks like, we are well on our way to creating success for every EAL learner we teach.

After this initial work, we spend the rest of our time exploring forty tried-and-tested practical strategies, including:

Secure Mike’s Creating Success for EAL Learners Training for Your Staff

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Inspiring INSET That Gives Your Staff Certainty, Clarity and Confidence Over How to Support EAL Learners in Any Classroom

A full-day with Mike will help your staff quickly and enjoyably develop their understanding of supporting EAL learners, and what they can do in their classrooms to make a genuine difference.

Here’s an example of a full-day schedule:

In Session 1, we focus on those three questions I outlined above:

Together, we’ll think about the specific context of EAL learners in your school and I’ll encourage staff to reflect on their experience working with these learners – both the successes and the challenges.

I’ll share some key documents teachers can use to make sense of English language development, and to accurately assess where their EAL learners are at, and what successful progress will look like for them.

In Session 2, we turn our attention to the practical strategies.

This session is longer, giving us lots of time to explore my Four Key Categories of EAL Support.

We’ll examine forty strategies, ten for each category, that teachers can use to create success for their EAL learners.

This lets us run the gamut of techniques, covering support for learners who are just learning their first few words of English, to those who are fluent speakers.

Throughout, there are lots of opportunities for staff to discuss the strategies, reflect on their own experiences, and start planning the changes they want to introduce in their classrooms.

Implementation is Key

After lunch, we get colleagues into teams, working on implementation.

For me, this is essential.

Staff need the opportunity to translate the ideas and techniques from the morning into their own practice.

While this is happening, I circulate, spending time with each team in turn.

It’s incredible just what colleagues can produce in this timeframe. The quality and depth of work I’ve seen teams create is remarkable.

I always encourage one or more senior leaders to come round with me as I circulate, so they can get a sense of what staff are developing.

Finally, we have the reflective plenary.

I bring everyone back together and teams have the opportunity to share their work with each other in a supportive, collegial atmosphere.

This creates great momentum to carry into the next full week of teaching, and beyond.

It ends the day on a high, and gives staff the confidence and energy to drive forwards with the new ideas, strategies and materials they’ve created.

What is included in a full day of Creating Success for EAL Learners INSET, Training or CPD?

All bookings include:

For half-day and twilight INSET or CPD, we focus on the expert-led sessions from Mike, and remove the implementation and plenary sessions from the agenda.

Everything else listed above is included in half-day and twilight bookings.

One input from Mike and, if you follow his guidance on how to maintain momentum around creating success for your EAL learners, you’ll have scope for 12+ months’ sustained impact in your school.

Plus, an exclusive bonus to celebrate the launch of my newly developed CPD platform, Mike Gershon’s Effective Teaching and Learning.

World-Leading Expertise on Practical Teaching and Learning That Works

Five reasons you can rely on Mike to deliver expert training and practical guidance for your staff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you do half-day and twilight training?

Yes. I offer both and recognise the flexibility schools sometimes need around their calendars. Half-day and twilight CPD focuses on expert input from me. We remove the teamworking and plenary sessions to accommodate this.

Do you offer follow-up packages?

Yes. Many schools I work with ask me to come back and work with them again, to support them in their developmental journey. Follow-up options include further training, supportive observations with constructive feedback, paired observations and SLT coaching.

We’re a small primary school, can we still work with you?

I always hold back a few dates each year for small primaries, recognising the challenges the smallest schools face in accessing high-quality training. We can also work around tight budgets by looking at online options and in-person training involving multiple schools. The smallest primary I’ve worked with had four teachers – and we had a great day together!

We’d like to look at online training. Is that something you offer?

Yes. It is not my preference as I believe that in-person is always better, and includes elements that can’t be replicated online. However, I do provide online training for schools where in-person may be difficult due to geography, time zones and other factors. My one rule for online is that staff must sit together so that I can facilitate discussion and interaction just as I do when delivering in person.

How far are you willing to travel?

I travel across the UK and overseas from my base in York. Far flung visits have included Shetland, Cornwall, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Pembrokeshire. Even further flung visits have included Romania, Norway, Italy, Bahrain, Kuwait and The Falkland Islands. Trips that require extensive travelling attract a higher cost to cover additional time and mileage.

Can we book you in conjunction with another school?

Yes. Many smaller schools opt for this approach. Sometimes this sees two or three primaries joining up for a full-day session, sometimes a cluster of schools combine budgets and I work with them over an extended period. Occasionally schools ask if they can book me and then sell tickets to the event to nearby schools to cover costs. That is also fine with me.

Is the training relevant for all age groups?

Yes. I have worked with hundreds of primaries, hundreds of secondaries, and dozens of FE colleges over the years. I present in a curriculum agnostic way, using examples that are relevant for the audience in front of me and the age group they teach. A big part of all my training is giving colleagues the opportunity to think about how they can take the ideas and strategies I present and use them with the learners they know best.

Start Changing Your Staff’s EAL Practice Today With Mike’s FREE Teaching EAL Learners Knowledge Base

Get a head start on developing how you support EAL learners in your school by exploring my Teaching EAL Learners Knowledge Base and sharing it with your staff.

The Knowledge Base features 43 blogs and articles adapted from my hugely popular book How to Teach EAL Students in the Classroom: The Complete Guide.

You’ll find guides, explanations and practical strategies covering:

So enjoy – I hope you and your team find it useful!

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P.S. Don’t forget, when I deliver my Creating Success for EAL Learners training, the emphasis is always on making life simpler and easier for your teachers, so they can adapt, develop and enhance their practice in ways that work.