Yesterday we had an audit of our ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programme. The Ministry of Education currently fund 54 students in the Hare Krishna School with a special English Language Learning grant. The funding money is to be spent to assist schools in New Zealand with the provision of targeted language learning programmes.
The purpose of the verfication is to ensure the money is being well utilised and that children who receive funding are receiving a correspondingly suitable programme. A programme that is well planned and supported by current research and best practices.
The person who completed the verification in our school remarked that she considered our school to be a very special environment for children to develop their English language abilities. In fact, as she was leaving, she commented that ours was the best school she has visited for the past three years in terms of what we are capable of providing for our language learners.
Our staff are all dedicated to providing the very best for our kids and this becomes apparent to visitors who are tuned into learning environments. We have a special interest in making sure all of our students are up to standard with English language learning and for those who have just arrived in New Zealand with little or no previous English we offer an ideal supportive scaffold into the intricacies of classroom English.
For a child of Indian language heritage our school would provide second to none in this country or in most any other country in the world. We have bilingual staff members, both registered classroom teachers and teacher aides who are able to meet the complex needs of second language learners. Our staff take regular professional development in second language acquisition which I enjoy facilitating very much. Currently we are looking at the English Language Learning Progressions published by the Ministry of Education which is another set of guidelines and benchmarks for plotting progress of Language learners.