A huge thanks to everyone who came along to our seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival yesterday. It was great to have the opportunity to share the learning from the Scotland, People and Language Forum we held in February with new people and highlight some of the issues that were raised in the Forum. One of the points that people had raised was the importance of having resources and that these resources were being used- if bilingual books aren’t being borrowed a library won’t reorder them. In our briefing papers we have identified some great resources around language learning- including information about supporting bilingual learners, an introduction to the 1+2 Approach and sites that selling dual language books.
In preparing for this seminar we asked people to share their good practice in celebrating language diversity and got some fabulous ideas back including the work of James Gilespies primary school in Edinburgh where “The Gruffalo” was read in 14 languages! We would really like to hear more about what you are doing to celebrate the languages in your schools and communities- please share your ideas
Your can read the full report from the Scotland People and Language Forum here or click here to see our presentation
You can read the briefing papers we created for the seminar
For our seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival in September we are going to be sharing some of the good practice that came out of our Scotland, People and Language Forum. We know that there is wonderful work going on throughout Scotland to support language diversity- including celebrating the home language of children whose first language isn’t English, getting parents to come in and teach their native language and using bilingual story books that can be used at home and in school.
But we know there are more brilliant things going on in schools and communities. If you have any tips for celebrating language diversity please leave a comment below or email marion.fairweather@bemis.org.uk
Are you a community organisation working with Ethnic Minority families?
Do you support them with their children’s learning and school matters?
Would your organisation like to develop greater confidence in supporting parents with these issues?
Then Gathered Together’s Action Learning Set could be for you!
For the past two years Gathered Together has been supporting parents from ethnic minorities to become more involved in their children’s learning and school communities and have been working directly with schools, Parent Councils and parents from ethnic minorities. You can read about our work with EM parents and the good practice that’s going on in schools and Parent Councils here.
We know how important it is that these parents are supported to be able to help their children’s learning and be part of the school community. From our experience in the last two years, we are aware that EM parents often feel isolated when it comes to approaching schools for support for their children and prefer to seek help and advice from community organisations. We recognise that the Scottish education system is changing rapidly and organisations not working directly within education can struggle to know how best to support these families and where to signpost parents for help and information.
Gathered Together is offering a unique opportunity to community organisations to join an Action Learning Set to develop their skills and knowledge to better support families.The Action Learning Set will give community practitioners the opportunity to:
The Action Learning set will meet fortnightly on a Tuesday from 9.30-12.30pm (Centrum Building, 38 Queen Street, Glasgow, G1 3DX) as follows:
Following the Learning Set, we will provide further bespoke support for community organisations, as required.
Places are extremely limited and will be confirmed on a first come first serve basis. Therefore, if you would like to participate in this Action Learning, please respond to this invitation as soon as possible.
To book a place email gtevents@bemis.org.uk
The deadline for applications is 15 September 2015.
If you have any questions about this invitation please email judy.wasige@bemis.org.uk or phone 0141 548 8047.
For the past two years Gathered Together has been supporting parents from ethnic minorities to become more involved in their children’s learning and school communities. We’ve been working directly with schools, Parent Councils and parents from ethnic minorities (you can read about our work with EM parents and the good practice that’s going on in schools and Parent Councils here). We know that engaging with parents who are new to Scotland can be a challenge and also how important it is that these parents are supported to be able to help their children’s learning and be part of the school community. We also know how much parents from other cultures can bring to schools- helping children learn about other cultures, religions and languages and to become responsible citizens
This term we are planning to support six schools or Parent Councils, providing bespoke support to meet the needs of the individual school/ Parent Council to engage more effectively with families from ethnic minorities. Our support is up to 10 contact hours and the bulk of the support would need to take place by December 2015
The support will include:
If you have any questions please email richard.bloodworth@bemis.org.uk or phone 0141 548 8047.
Complete this form Bespoke-support-application-form (3)
The deadline for applications is 14 September 2015 (applications to be sent to richard.bloodworth@bemis.org.uk)
Bemis is moving office tomorrow! We’ve got a lovely new office on the 4th floor of the Centrum Building (just downstairs from our current office). This means that we won’t be able to answer the phones and emails over the next few days while we set things up.