The Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) Team

(EMTAS) consists of three specialist teachers and one teaching assistants with the specific role of providing effective support for ethnic minority pupils who learn English as an additional language. Our focus is to work with pupils, families and class teachers and other school staff to ensure that pupils become functionally self-sufficient in speaking, listening, reading, and writing English, removing barriers to accessing the wider curriculum.

The EMTAS Team are part of the Early Years and School Improvement Service and are funded to support pupils in maintained North Tyneside schools from Year 1 upwards and is based at the Langdale Centre.

There are many languages spoken in schools across the authority, reflecting the increasing diversity within our communities. Our bilingual learners include British minority ethnic groups as well as new arrivals, such as children from asylum seeker families and economic migrants. Support for schools will focus on building staff expertise to ensure that pupils are given the most effective support possible to ensure they are learning in school and that their English needs are not barriers to their maintaining good progress. Offering appropriate support to the family can also be a core part of the offer to schools. All of this is determined by the individual needs of the pupil.