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Learning Village

SEND support: Supporting deaf learners

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What are you interested in?

6-11 year-olds 'The Village'

Blended vocabulary, language structure and reading programme for EAL and multilingual learners

Image as the language of instruction for learners of ANY language background

Independent learning • small-group teaching • differentiation in class • high interest, low level reading support

For 6-11 year-olds

11-16 year-olds 'The Islands'

Blended vocabulary, language structure and reading programme for EAL and multilingual learners

Image as the language of instruction for learners of ANY language background

Independent learning • small-group teaching • differentiation in class • high interest, low level reading support

For 11-16 year-olds

Post-16/adults (Community Village)

Blended vocabulary, language structure and reading programme for ESOL and multilingual adult learners

Supporting school community members with their integration into school community life!

High interest, low level reading - image as the language of instruction for learners of ANY language background.

AssessEP

Across Cultures English Proficiency Assessment (AssessEP) is an easy assessment to administer, suitable for learners aged 7+ through to adult.

EAL Consultancy

A virtual consultancy process at your own pace and at a time convenient for you aiming to provide staff with the skills and resources needed to successfully support language learners within the demands of the curriculum and of a multilingual world.

EAL Inset day/CPD day

Bespoke CPD for schools and school groups.

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Author: Karen Wilson, SEND Specialist

Approximate reading time: 1 minute

Learning Village is an invaluable tool for deaf learners with or without EAL. The use of image as the main language of instruction provides visual cues to support your learners.

Tip or Idea: Deaf learners may need to lip read or see speech physically modelled to support their understanding. Using our resources in an adult-led small group session and/or using the demo learner as a teaching tool can be very powerful for deaf learners.

Learning Village resource: Try using our printable resources in small group or pre-teaching sessions to support English language development across the curriculum. For example, our Plant and Animal Cells resource is great for supporting science learning!

SEND support: Pre-teaching

Created: Wed 31st Jul 2024

Pre-teaching helps learners to enter a lesson feeling confident, independent and ready to shine! It can be used to promote curiosity before a lesson, expose learners to new, unfamiliar vocabulary or concepts and/or allow them to tackle tasks at their own pace before working in a larger group setting.

SEND support: Scaffolding from word to sentence level

Created: Mon 9th Mar 2026

Progressing from single words to full sentences is essential for learners’ confidence and access to the curriculum. The first goal is to build vocabulary and meaning. Start with key vocabulary using visuals, repetition, and word banks. Next, support learners with sentence stems and substitution tables to build phrases and gradually progress to expanding sentences with adjectives and conjunctions.

SEND support: Summer learning loss

Created: Thu 19th Jun 2025

During the school summer holidays pupils may lack opportunities to practise and revisit skills they have been learning in class. Research indicates that students can lose between one to three months of learning during their extended break! Considering ways to keep learners engaged throughout the summer is an important step in reducing lost learning. This is especially important for students with additional needs who may face challenges with learning retention, retrieval, and recall.

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