Claire Planel

Claire Planel's decade of working in English primary schools with migrant children has given her valuable insights into the cross-cultural learning experience of individual children, their families, and their school teachers, as well as best practice in how to teach English as an Additional Language (EAL). This fully-indexed and enlightening book provides a lively personal narrative as well as a historical record of a Local Education Authority's provision of EAL. At a time when local authorities up and down the country are reducing their funding for EAL, the author argues that primary classroom teachers should first and foremost be language teachers, supporting the different language needs of EAL children as well as mother-tongue English speakers to enable both groups to access the national curriculum fully.

Are English children able to grasp grammar better or worse than that of children in other countries? Are they better or worse at numeracy than their neighbours? Does the English education system measure up to the challenge from its competitors? This is an examination of the education system in England as compared with neighbouring countries, such as France. This text shows what pupils in England and France are doing in the classroom and what standards they achieve. The voices of the pupils themselves articulate numerous perceptions.