Hello world!

Or, more likely, hello fellow teacher. My name is Jude and I am an EAL teacher supporting a mix of new and recently arrived pupils who speak little or no English. I work in a Primary School in South London, and work with Key Stage 2.

I have been a teacher for 27 years, and I find myself having similar conversations about EAL beginners to those I had when started teaching. But now, we do not have the benefit of EAL specialists in all our schools and many Local Authorities have been pared to the bone.

I have decided to start a blog to share with the world my experiences, thoughts and strategies for keeping new arrivals "joined in", that is to say an integrated member of your class and your school.

Throughout this blog, the experiences and words are real but the names have all been changed.

At present the blog does not have the functionality of a "wordpress" blog, but if you want to get in touch to make a comment or ask a question, you can contact me: joinedinthinking@collaborativelearning.org