Loziana Prifti
EAL Lead, World Academy of Tirana
| I believe [the annual multiplayer competition] was a great opportunity to get in touch with other players around the world, my students were so excited about it. I am looking forward to having other such activities where students both learn and entertain themselves. |
Liza Reis
EAL teacher, British School Rio
| I have avidly been using the Learning Village on a daily basis with my small groups of EAL students here at the British School in Rio de Janeiro. I must say how wonderful it is to see the children's progress using the best practice of the Learning Village, where the speaking and listening, reading and writing opportunities linked to their curriculum content, truly allow them to gain further confidence in the English language acquisition. |
Ruth Radwan
Head of Multilingualism, International Schools Partnership (ISP)
| As the Group Head of Multilingualism at ISP, I have had the great pleasure of working collaboratively with Across Cultures for the last seven months and have been incredibly impressed with the team’s expertise, agility and dedication to our organisation’s training of school-based Multilingualism Leads. They have provided enormous support in determining and structuring Professional Learning for ISP, often going above and beyond the scope of their work to offer advice and assistance. The team has consistently engaged with all our stakeholders in a professional, timely, warm and pragmatic way, quickly establishing rapport, getting to grips with different contexts and actively investing time in listening to our educators. Caroline, Iva and Mary are outstanding facilitators and balance academic knowledge of the field with practical examples and case studies effortlessly, to ensure targeted and relevant content.
In our internally conducted, robust impact surveys, the average score from the 130+ educators in almost 60 countries who have engaged with the EAL & Multilingual Framework Process has been 8.5 out of 10, which is a huge achievement and testimony to the wonderful work that Across Cultures continues to do. In addition, many of our schools have benefited significantly from the plethora of resources, webinars and follow-up action planning meetings that have been offered and organised by the team. At ISP, one of our key tenets is that we learn and ‘get better together’ and Across Cultures has certainly helped us to achieve this goal in our multilingualism provision. We would wholeheartedly recommend Across Cultures’ training services to other international school groups and wish them ongoing success. Many, many, many thanks, Across Cultures: you are an inspiring group of specialists and educators! |
Judges
Teach Primary Awards 2023
| Although primarily designed as a resource for learners using EAL, Learning Village is an inclusive, engaging tool for all learners, including those with SEND. The resource is fun, vibrant and engaging, with sound pedagogical foundation and a focus on learning through use of images and dual coding. The programme is intuitive in functionality, and assessments allow learning to suit the individual learner – thereby promoting independence and confidence. There is also the option to adapt the resource, including the ability to remove some of the sensory input if needed. |
EAL Coordinator
EAL Coordinator, Rush Green Primary School
| The children are really enjoying the use of the Learning Village and have told me that they believe it has helped them with their confidence and language gathering. Teachers have also reported that they have seen progress in the children's confidence and understanding. |
Miriam Mocker
EAL Lead and Year 3 & 4 Class Teacher, The Lubavitch MAT
| I am thrilled to share that both our students and teachers have wholeheartedly embraced this new tool. The Learning Village platform has proven to be engaging and effective, creating an enjoyable learning experience for all involved. Its impact on our educational endeavours has been remarkable, and we couldn't be happier with the results thus far. |
Jatinder Lambert
Tenby Penang School, Malaysia
| I would like to reiterate what everyone has said. This course has been absolutely amazing and is so comprehensive. It has given us a lot of food for thought, and I'm really excited to get started on improving our whole process with EAL provision. Thank you to the team and the facilitators, amazing knowledge, fantastic, I really, really enjoyed it. |
Deena Shihadah
TA, Walton-le-Dale High School
| It was a very fascinating and useful course that has multiple amazing ways to help engage EAL students through a variety of ways and also with a format that makes it fun for the students to learn. The course was really well set out, everything was broken down in a way that could be easily followed and all questions asked were answered quickly and very well! |
Keely Walker
Teacher and EAL Lead, Heronsgate Primary
| Brilliant resources that are quick and easy to use but provide high quality, effective resources. |
Jo Bridges
Headteacher, Widney Junior School
| Having been a SENCO and now Headteacher, I can honestly say that this is the best resource for EAL learners I have come across. Having taken part in a range of online training in the past 2 years, this was excellent. Lots of information given and very interactive. Presenters were extremely professional and clearly had a lot of knowledge they were able to impart effectively. |
Katie Eastwood
Teacher and EAL Coordinator, St Botolph's Primary School
| The resources will really help all members of staff at school. |
Jess Doyle
Class teacher and EAL Leads, Wellington Lions Primary Academy
| I found this training very informative. It allowed me to explore all of the sections of the site which would be beneficial to the children in my school. It also gave me an insight into all the different resources that can be used when supporting language learning. |
Jazmine Clark
TA, Edith Cavell Primary School
| Thank you so much for providing me with so much information and knowledge on how to use this as an effective learning tool. |
Boglarka Fercsi
Head of EAL, Crab Lane Primary School
| [The course] exceeded my expectation. There are lots of tools now that could be used with the whole class instead of just the EALs. Thank you for your continuous hard work. |
Kirk Shuttleworth
EAL Lead, Rounds Green Primary
| Fantastic course as always! New ideas to take children to the next level. |
Michelle Barclay
LSA, Haseltine Primary
| Your training sessions are always informative and I like the way we have help while exploring new things. |
Cindy Jones
EAL Teacher, Hartland International School
| I really like the practical nature of the training. One can try and ask questions when you are stuck. |
Lenka Bayman
EAL Coordinator, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School
| I have learnt about and tried some new, very useful tools. Lovely modelling, also lovely to be in breakout rooms and chat to EAL colleagues. Also very good idea to have afternoon tea. I love teaching EAL, but it can be isolated as there isn't anyone in the school to share it with. |
Resham Kaur
TA, Atam Academy
| In our school we have implemented many different models for the learning in different areas, i.e. reading, maths, writing spelling etc. We find that with Learning Village everything is incorporated within one place. Children will benefit from less login details to remember. |
Olga Hopper
Assistant Headteacher, Ranelagh Primary School
| Great training, love the extensive range of activities and extra resources available to learners and teachers, and how adaptable it is to different levels. |
Fiona McCulloch
EAL Coordinator, St Edwards College Malta
| An excellent resource, so many different tools that are practical and easy to use. |
Emma Prophet
LSA, The Grove Primary School
| Really enjoyed the course, learnt so much and can't wait to get started with our students. |
Patricia, Ema's Mum
Parent
| Learning Village is helping her by providing the vocabulary and grammar she needs... we sometimes work at home on the Learning Village. We use the book of progress, also, and she has made amazing progress. |
Miranda Howell
Learning Village Virtual School Teacher
| Using the Learning Village for teaching virtually is an effective way of engaging learners, even if they have minimum English language knowledge. In my experience with young children, they participate enthusiastically in the online games and are swift to learn new vocabulary, using a structured approach. The wide range of resources available provide lots of options. It is easy to set them consolidation homework and monitor their progress too. Having everything available on one platform makes for easy teaching and learning. |
Pam Heath
Improvement Adviser School Improvement Team, Bedford Borough Council
| I heard yesterday from one of the Bedford schools using the Learning Village. One of their staff was at an OFSTED reading/phonics session we were running. They were saying how keen their children were to use the resource, how it really helped as it was very visual and the very positive progress pupils are making as a result of using Learning Village. |
OFSTED Inspection report
Tudor Primary
| Tudor Primary use the Learning Village to support early, short-term interventions: "Early, short-term interventions for pupils new to learning English draw upon rich resources and strategies which immerse pupils in the language from the time they join the school." OFSTED Inspection report: Tudor Primary School, 6–7 March 2018 (case study to follow) |
Kasia Talbot
EAL Coach, Holly Lodge School
| I have been using the new Plant and Animal Cells lesson with my Science Intervention groups and it’s great. It’s challenging but since we have already done the basic differences between the cells the lesson consolidates the students’ knowledge and works as an extension. Thank You! |
Tammy Marsh
EAL Teacher, Amity International School, Abu Dhabi
| I just wanted to say what a great time we are having with the Learning Village! It is such a fabulous resource! |
Alistair Harding
EAL Coordinator, Holly Lodge High School
| The Learning Village has provided our school with a very practical, individualised learning tool for EAL students, with a clear curriculum, structure and pedagogy. This allows both more and less experienced staff to effectively support students’ language development. There is a wealth of materials and resources available, as well as plenty of support and training to help optimise our use of the tool. |
Jonathan Marquez
EAL Teacher, Academia Británica Cuscatleca International School, El Salvador
| As a school, we are proud to be part of Learning Village and have seen the improvements the students are making in their EAL learning. We would recommend every school to be part of Learning Village as it is an essential tool that offers valuable resources not only for EAL learners but for all. |
Catherine Brennan
Education Consultant, Better Bilingual
| I'm loving the Learning Village - it is a fantastic resource and I keep finding new things too! My learners are so motivated by it and like the messaging facility. |
Kamil Trzebiatowski
EAL Coordinator, Teacher, Trainer, Speaker, Education Blogger
| You're revolutionising my classroom and allowing me to make significant changes / improvements to the lives of these children. |
Elizabeth Mickiewicz
EAL Teacher Advisor, Wolverhampton Local Authority
| I understand the Village a lot more and how to link it to the curriculum. |
Sudha Dogra
EAL Coordinator, Colton Hills Community School
| This course will fill a gap in the provision we are able to provide to EAL learners at an early stage of English acquisition. |
Stacy Allen
Lead of Nurture, Colton Hills Community School
| Fantastic resources to support children within the classroom and teacher planning. |
Sam Thorne
Hylands Primary School
| The Learning Village is great. The children absolutely love it and I have to say I’ve been enjoying and learning as I go along. We had a Teaching and Learning Review at our school the other day and I used the Learning Village to demonstrate how we support our EAL pupils. [The consultants] seemed very impressed and actually spoke to the Local Authority Advisor about how well the Learning Village was being used at our school. |
Roxbourne Primary School
| Our pupils have really benefited from their work on the Learning Village! Well done children, keep up the great work! |
Michelle Wain
EMA Adviser, London Borough of Havering
| The Learning Village materials are of an excellent quality with clear language progression. The programme works very well as a teaching tool. |
Vicki Wilson
Year 2 EAL teacher and EAL Team Leader, YCIS HK Primary.
| I really liked the sentence activities, it really stretched my students and I saw a marked improvement. Overall I love the concept of the Learning Village - making friends highly motivated my students and they loved exploring the village. The graphics are wonderful. |
Shirley Rowe
Head of Department, ESOL, New Plymouth Boys High, New Zealand
| A student arriving from overseas being 18 years old and having limited oral skills and no reading or writing. He really felt pleased being able to use the Learning Village for self-study, without feeling conscious in front of the others in the class. |
Sam Mobbs
Class Teacher, Oasis Watermead Academy, UK
| The Learning Village has proved to be a good intervention programme for our EAL children and SEN. The children are very enthusiastic about using it, and are becoming more independent. We use it as an intervention throughout assembly in the morning and in some afternoons, when some of the learning is irrelevant to them and they would benefit from that more. It is clear that the children are making progress... |
Laura Haines
EAL Coordinator, International School of Milan, Italy
| I see the children relaxed and happy when they are on the Learning Village. I can see that they are proud of their progress and feel a sense of achievement which they can share with others. I think that there are a lot of good EAL ‘games’ available but this is a comprehensive programme that can be integrated into any curriculum. |
Ellen Copsey
Assistant Head Teacher, Willow Bank Primary, UK
| A really fantastic resource. We can't wait to start using it with our pupils. |
Keith Shurlock
Principal, Grace International School, Bangladesh
| It is a delight to see a resource that has grown out of good practice in schools. |
Hanneke Blijham
EAL Teacher, Groningse Schoolvereniging, Netherlands
| Thank you so much for this inspiring workshop. I was enthusiastic about it when first trying it but even more so after today! |
