EAL New Arrival — First Day Checklist
What to do in the first hour, first morning and first afternoon when a child with no English joins your class. Practical, kind, ready to print.
Preview
Page count: 6. Print-ready PDF — letter / A4 friendly. Click image to see all pages.
Learning objective
Provide a structured response for the day a child with little or no English first arrives.
About this resource
- Subject: EAL & New Arrivals
- Type: Checklist
- Grade levels: Kindergarten (ages 4-6, ≈ Reception / Y1), Grade 1 (ages 6-7, ≈ Year 2), Grade 2 (ages 7-8, ≈ Year 3), Grade 3 (ages 8-9, ≈ Year 4), Grade 4 (ages 9-10, ≈ Year 5), Grade 5 (ages 10-11, ≈ Year 6), Grade 6 (ages 11-12, ≈ Year 7)
- Pages: 6
- Date added: 2026-08-10
- Credit: Qualified primary teacher
EAL — recommended reading
Books on welcoming, supporting and teaching new arrivals.
Practitioner foundations
-
S
Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning — Pauline Gibbons
The book most-quoted by EAL specialists - A Adding English: A Guide to Teaching in Multilingual Classrooms — Liz Coelho
- E English as an Additional Language: Approaches to Teaching Linguistic Minority Students — Constant Leung, Charlene Solomon
Disclosure: Links above go to Amazon. LessonKind may earn a small commission if you buy via these links — at no extra cost to you. We only link to books and items we already recommend in our resources. We are not paid by Amazon to recommend specific titles.
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Articles that go deeper on the topic this resource covers.
EAL & inclusion · 9 min read
Teaching a Child Who Doesn't Speak Any English Yet
When a new arrival is sat at the back of your class with no English and no warning, here's what to do in the first hour, the first week and the first term.
EAL & inclusion · 6 min read
The Silent Period — Why Your EAL Child Isn't Speaking
When a new EAL arrival barely speaks for weeks, teachers worry. The silent period is well-documented in the research, almost universal, and often a sign of cognitive work happening below the surface.
EAL & inclusion · 6 min read
A New EAL Pupil's First Week: What Actually Helps
When a child who speaks little or no English joins your class, the first week shapes everything that follows. Here's what experienced teachers do — and what they avoid.
EAL & inclusion · 6 min read
A New EAL Pupil's First Week: What Actually Helps
When a child who speaks little or no English joins your class, the first week shapes everything that follows. Here's what experienced teachers do — and what they avoid.
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