G.I.N.A English

 

Many of our pupils (from F1 to Y6) join Ferham having never been to school before. We recognise how daunting this must be and do our utmost to support our International New Arrivals.  We, like the Bell Foundation,  recognise that International New Arrival pupils benefit from joining mainstream classes in terms of social, academic and linguistic benefits; we also know how empowering the "survival" language that GINA English teaches them proves to be. 

 

GINA (Group for International New Arrivals) English is provision for a small group of INA pupils to learn together away from the classroom. GINA is designed to improve pupils’ confidence and support rapid language acquisition.  

GINA combines Ferham’s most successful practices:  Talk for Writing, Whole Class Reading, Makaton and a love of picture books.  

Children learn stories off-by-heart using a text map with lots of opportunities to practise and consolidate the new vocabulary. The books are carefully chosen by our book-loving SENDCo and Headteacher to be interesting and empowering as our pupils learn key vocabulary, phrases and sentences.  

Texts are chosen specifically to develop pupil’s  everyday language acquisition enabling them, for example,  to share likes and dislikes, know colours, shapes, animals and body parts as well as more academic language such as verbs and prepositions.  

Titles include Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, From Head To Toe, also by Eric Carle and Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins. Once confident – and this is a key focus of our GINA offer, pupils perform to an audience.  

 

As soon as  GINA English pupils are confident and articulate, they re-join class English lessons.