Students Supporting Students
EAL students from Ardingly College visit Warden Park Academy to interact with their EAL students in mother tongues and in English, offering support & friendship.
Aims
To share information and coping mechanisms with one another.
To break up the monotony of speaking/hearing another language all day/every day.
To support partner school with language help or subject-specific help.
Opportunity for students to mentor younger students at partner school.
Background
Member of staff at Ardingly College had children at partner school and developed connections with the EAL lead.
Resources
Minibus.
Staff member
2 hours per week
Impact
Ardingly students have developed agency for the project themselves over time and seek to create sessions that are bespoke and meet the needs of the partner school's students.
Feedback from partner school is excellent and the project shared weekly on their newsletter to parents.
Students from both schools ask to return each year.
Feedback from the school:
"It was nice to meet some old & new people from Ardingly. I really enjoyed chatting & talking with everyone & also telling a lot of jokes. I met a girl from Italy & spoke Italian so it was cool & we chatted with someone from Germany & we talked about Duolingo."
"Thank you for inviting me. I really enjoyed it & I got to chat with new people. I made some new friends & got to know the people more. It was really all fun & joyful."
Feedback from Ardingly College students:
"I have enjoyed installing relationships with the students at Warden Park, by chatting with them about our own cultural backgrounds and also about every day things."
"This experience has helped me grow my confidence as well as helped me be more sociable, making friends with people of different ages and different backgrounds."
Pupil Involvement
YR11-13 students from Ardingly College supporting year 7-10 students at partner school.
Frequency
Tuesday 11:30am – 12:30pm weekly during 2nd half of Michaelmas term & 1st half of Lent time.