Achievers is a Supplementary School in Ipswich for primary school aged children that have English as an additional language. It is a CiC founded with the support of Suffolk County Council, most pupils come from low income families. Children attending the school come from China, Kurdistan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Turkey and there are currently 72 children on roll.
A grant from the Suffolk Coronavirus Community Fund will enable Achievers to continue to support children and families online during the Coronavirus crisis. It has created and delivered home-learning packs containing printed workbooks and art and craft resources and provided online video sessions in English, Maths and Art and Crafts through its website and Google Classroom.
During the Covid-19, we started providing alternative ways to support children and families who have EAL and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We have organised online sessions, printed booklets and with the help of Volunteering matters and Ipswich museum provided some Art and Craft materials.
Although all children will go back to school in September, they will all be in different “bubbles”, which means that we will still not be able to hold normal lessons, at a time when they will need our help more than ever. Children from non-English speaking families tend to speak their native languages at home and it is often challenging to bring their level of English back up to standard after a long summer holiday. This year the break has been even longer.