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SPUK|Resources|Education|Secondary|Case Studies|Kenton School
SPUK|Resources|Education|Secondary|Case Studies|Kenton School
Describe your school: We are situated in Newcastle Upon Tyne. We have 1840 students on role. We are in a very deprived area of Newcastle with over 70% pupil premium students. Over 20% of our students are EAL.
Did you trial the ExamReader / C-Pen Reader 2/ LingoPen initially, if so, what “review process” did you follow and what conclusions did you draw? We have used the ExamReader pens in school for our SEND students for a few years. This has allowed students to work more independently in class and has reduced the number of readers needed for exam access arrangements. We have recently enrolled Syrian refugees that have very little understanding of English. We decided to trial the LingoPens with these students and if successful, hand them out to more of our EAL students to use in their lessons. We found that when they could read in their own language, they were much more confident in lessons and were able to access more areas of the curriculum.
Why did you decide to trial the pens? We wanted a way for EAL students to be able to access the curriculum more easily, we were hoping that these would be faster and easier to use than a bilingual dictionary.
How many students trialled the pens? We had 5 students trial the LingoPen. Three Arabic students and two Spanish students.
What feedback did you get back from students? Staff ? The Spanish speaking students said, “being able to read subject specific words in my own language gave me a better understanding of what we were learning." The Arabic students that we trialled the pens on said “it is good to be able to see words repeated regularly in my own language to start to learn what different words are used for in English.” Staff said, “The number of hours it would take to translate all of these words is huge, but the pen does it in seconds, it has made teaching the EAL students much happier and more comfortable in my lessons.”
What do you most like about the pens? They are small and compact, so they do not interfere with the lesson. They are so quick at helping the students understand new words.
What change(s) would most improve the pens? It would be very beneficial for the pens to read out loud in Arabic. We have many Arabic students that have had little to no education and are illiterate in their own language.
Please describe how you are using the pens We are using the pens with the EAL students that have the smallest English vocabulary and therefore the largest language barrier to learning. We are hoping that with repeated use, the students will increase their vocabulary and be able to move onto the reading pen that they will be able to use in their exams.
Please describe how the use of the pens has affected your students (performance, confidence, independence etc.)? The students that have tried the pens are working much more independently in class.
Please describe any other areas in school you feel the pen has helped (staff time savings, college results, cost savings etc.). Many EAL students can work in class independently without the need for an EAL assistant. This has meant that we can redeploy our EAL team to work in small group targeted interventions and strengthen their understanding of English.
Did access to a LingoPen have an impact on students' attitude to learning? EAL students' attitude to learning improved greatly as they could access the curriculum and keep up with the learning due to the speed of the pens. They have previously disengaged from lessons as it took so long to find translations in the traditional dictionaries.
What tasks did the students use the pens for? Did the pen support or help embed in English vocabulary knowledge? (If so, could you describe an example?) The pens were used in English, Science and Geography lessons. This allowed the students to find subject specific translations instantly and be more aware of the topic of the lesson (particularly in Science). In English it was used to read written text, one student can read some English, but she is still growing her English vocabulary. She was able to keep pace with the lesson and learn new words as she could read some words and use the pen to translate to Arabic the words, she was having difficulty with.
What were the benefits for the teachers? Teachers do not have to worry about translating keywords. At Kenton we currently try to translate the key words from Science into Arabic and Persian. With the pens, the need for this has been reduced significantly freeing up teacher's time.
Did you see any impact to the student's mental health and wellbeing? Over the short period of time that we trialled the pens it has been difficult to ascertain the impact of the pens on students' mental health and wellbeing, however, when students are able to understand the lessons more, they feel more included in school life. They have begun to offer answers to questions in class which shows an increased confidence in the students that was not there before using the pens.
– Fiona Murray, Senior Team Leader in Learning Support, Kenton School
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