School Improvement Service

Language Support Service

The Language Support Service helps teachers and schools in Barking and Dagenham where there are children who are from different ethnic groups and who are learning to speak English.

The focus at the moment is to help schools help children who have just arrived with little knowledge of English so they can settle in quickly and do well at school.

Language Support Service teachers can provide a link between parents and their children's schools. They can also give information about interpreters.

Members of the Language Support Service provide in-service training for Governors, English as an Additional Language teachers and mainstream subject teachers, as well as teaching assistants in all schools in Barking and Dagenham.

They work alongside these teachers to develop teaching approaches and provide advice, support and guidance in the field of teaching English as an additional language and minority ethnic achievement.

How to access the service

When you register your child for a school place, the officer will decide if your child needs language support. If your child needs to learn English, the officer will ask the Language Support Service to help. Parents do not need to take action themselves.