The Learning Village offers a full EAL professional development service, including:
- Regular EAL newsletters with associated evidence-based resources to share CPD
- Regular EAL webinars delivered by EAL experts
- Ready-made printable resources including curriculum topics for immediate use and key EAL topics of interest
You can find all of this and more in the sections outlined below. If you would like to learn more about how the Learning Village team can support you and your learners, please get in touch by email (info@axcultures.com) or phone (+44 (0) 118 335 0035).
About us
The Learning Village is a resource developed by Across Cultures. Through the Learning Village programme, Across Cultures supports young English language learners, and their teachers, parents and carers, with the skills and resources they need to achieve proficiency in English and to access a demanding school curriculum, in a multilingual world.
How we started
Caroline Scott, Author and Director at Across Cultures originally began writing an induction to English, funded by the Local Authority of Tower Hamlets in 2002. This funding was awarded to accommodate the distinct need for additional support for new-to-English learners in the mainstream. After writing her first draft, Caroline went on to develop this further, eventually providing training for many schools in Tower Hamlets and beyond. After some years, Caroline left Tower Hamlets to start an international School overseas. There, she was able to develop ideas further. Following significant additional research, she wrote her first book, 'Teaching Children as an Additional Language: A Programme for 7-11 year olds'. She later went onto write her second book, 'Teaching English as an Additional Language 5-11, A Whole School Resource', which encompassed many more facets of language learning, including language learning strategies, additional assessment and differentiating further for all levels of language across all curriculum subjects.
The Learning Village was a natural evolution of her work. It allows increased flexibility for learners and teachers, as well as significantly more content and assessment opportunities. Caroline also delivers a three-day training for senior teachers/leaders on supporting EAL learning across the curriculum (the EAL Framework course), as well as whole-school insets and one-day courses on how to achieve effective EAL teaching through the Learning Village.
