Multilingual – Support for Leaders in School  

Key considerations when designing your curriculum for this Area

When designing your curriculum in your school, consideration should be given to the nature of your language provision as well as the range of linguistic and cultural experiences you offer your learners. Schools should also plan for skills development in all the languages on offer and ensure breadth and depth when selecting literature.

The Five Stage Model for English as an additional language (EAL) and Welsh as an additional language (WAL) and support materials should be referenced when considering progression of EAL learners in English-medium schools and WAL learners in Welsh-medium schools. The Language acquisition needs assessment survey toolkit for primary and secondary teachers is available online on Hwb.

Language acquisition needs assessment survey toolkit: English as an additional language (EAL) - Primary

Language acquisition needs assessment survey toolkit: English as an additional language (EAL) - Secondary

Considerations for provision and experiences

• What is the current linguistic landscape of your school and your cluster? How can you best use this to help your learners make progress in all their languages?

• How will you choose which international language or languages to teach? How will you provide breadth and depth in international languages?

• How will you provide suitable and sufficient opportunities for learners to use their Welsh, English and international language(s) in purposeful contexts?

• How will you create an environment which encourages learners to draw upon their knowledge of a number of languages, including knowledge of language varieties (accent, dialect, register, jargon, and idiolect) to facilitate understanding and improve communication when interacting with others?

• How will you develop strategies to include and build upon learners’ home languages and cultures in the classroom?

• How will you provide opportunities for learners to participate in spontaneous as well as planned speaking in various contexts with a range of peers and adults?

• How will you provide learners with a wide range of literature, including multimodal and challenging texts in paper, digital, electronic and live form, fostering their enjoyment of purposeful reading and viewing, and encouraging them to explore books and new technologies?

Considerations when selecting literature

• Learners should experience a wealth of literature which provides opportunities to realise the four purposes of the curriculum.

• Schools should create a positive reading culture which immerses learners in literature that reflects their interests and ignites their enthusiasm.

• Learners should be exposed to a diverse range of literary experiences beyond the classroom.

• Learners should be introduced to literature which reflects diversity and cultures in the locality, Wales as well as the wider world.

• Schools should choose literature which is sufficiently rich and substantial to engage learners intellectually and emotionally and which can encourage them to be inspired, moved and changed.

• Schools should ensure that learners experience a range of contemporary literature and literature from different periods in the past.

Learners should have the opportunity to experience and to learn about literature and creators of literature which have made a significant contribution, be that in Wales (in Welsh/English), other nations in the United Kingdom, and/or the wider world (including English literature and literature in learners’ international and home languages). This contribution might be in terms of a field of literature, in terms of the language, or in terms of culture and heritage.