Teaching and learning in diverse school contexts: the journeys of three newly-arrived students

Children and young people with English as an additional language (EAL) form an extremely diverse population in terms of their backgrounds, educational experiences and reasons that have led to their temporary or permanent migration to a foreign country. Their bilingual language development provides teaching professionals with further challenges. Focusing on a secondary school located in the northwest of England, this chapter explores the stories of three newly-arrived students as they experience the English educational system. Their views and voices are of students who were at the very early stages of learning English as well as adapting to a new educational context. The students and staff were involved in a small-scale research project exploring different types of support for learning available at the school. In this chapter I will focus on three specific cases in order to explore the strategies that have proven to be successful in this particular circumstance and context. Each of the three children have very different stories in terms of reasons for moving to another country, family circumstances, English language knowledge, prior school experiences, personal characteristics and learning styles. However, they are a representation of some of the subsequent challenges for the school aiming to respond to students’ needs and become more inclusive. All three demonstrate eagerness to learn and be successful. They are specific about what makes their learning and general school experience as students more positive and stimulating and what their teachers could do to improve the existing circumstances.