It is difficult for children coming into a class where they don’t know anyone, it is even harder when that child has little or no English. While lots of children adapt brilliantly to the new culture, the first while can be challenging when they are not able to communicate and join in with the rest of their class. Marion Stempczyk and Kayee Chui from Falkirk’s Bilingual and Traveller Pupil Support Service (BaTPSS) explained to us the importance of being able to meet with the children and their family before they started school- to give them the opportunity to assess the children’s English level, explain how things work in the Scottish education system and so that the BaTPSS team can help the school get ready for the new students.
We have heard some wonderful stories about teachers who taught the class how to say “hello” in Chinese, so that the new student would be welcomed in his own language and straight away get a feeling of belonging. However, as Marion explained, a lot of teachers are unsure how best to work with students who arrive from a different culture, with limited English and different experiences of school. How can teachers make sure that a child feels included in the class when they don’t have the language skills to join in?
This is where the BaTPSS team come in, as well as helping the children develop their English, Marion and Kayee work with the teachers to help them understand what it is like for the children and how they can support them in the classroom. English as an Additional Language services are only able to support children for a limited period of time and it’s essential that the classroom teachers have the skills to be able to support children who have English as an additional language in their learning.
Here is Marion talking about the work they do with teachers
Bilingual and Traveler Pupil Support Service- Helping teachers work with EAL pupils from BEMIS on Vimeo.
This year we have been trying to share some of the good practice we’ve heard about from our work with schools and Parent Councils. It is really important that people who are doing a brilliant job are recognised and valued. Education Scotland have been running the “Scottish education awards” since 2005 and take nominations from members of the public- the awards are for “educational supporter of the year”, “head teacher of the year” “teacher of the year”, “parents as partners in learning” and many more.
For more details and to find out how to make a nomination go to http://tinyurl.com/y9gzf2g We would love to hear your stories about who you nominated and why- please get in touch if you are making a nomination
Have a look at the our FAQ page for some basic information on how the project came to be, why we are needed and what we can offer.
Gathered Together is about PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT and how every parent/carer’s voice matters when it comes to getting involved in school life and their child’s education. We offer different workshops to help tackle barriers, build confidence and get more parents involved.
What do we offer?
Information Session on Parental Involvement
We hold workshops for Ethnic and Cultural Minority parents that aim to discuss barriers they face when getting involved with schools, positive ways to overcome those barriers and inform parents of their rights and responsibilities to get involved with their child’s education. We want to hear from all parents and carers from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds about their feelings on education, schools and why learning is important for their child.
We gather this information and feed it back to schools and parent councils so they can improve their practice and become more inclusive. Gathered Together have been successfully working with different ethnic and cultural minority organisations to deliver this training in our 7 pilot areas.
We often deliver these workshops alongside community groups and organisations that work with EM parents, for example we have held successful sessions with Fife Migrants Forum, Karibu, the International Women’s Group and EAL/ESOL classes to name a few. If you are part of a community organisation or if you would like more information about this session – please contact us.
Involving and Recruiting More People to your Parent Group Workshop
SPTC have a long history of delivering successful and informative workshops to Parent Councils across Scotland and are working with us to deliver this training.
Our workshop gives Parent Councils the chance to think about why parents aren’t getting involved in the school community and provides the opportunity to develop practical solutions to help to overcome any barriers. We want to share the good practice we are finding and offer constructive advice when it comes to involving parents.
If you are in our 7 pilot areas and you think that your parent council or group would benefit from our training – please contact us.
What else do we offer?
As well as working with Parent Councils, we are meeting with schools to gather evidence of good practice to be shared across local authorities. We have some wonderful examples of work that schools are do to create an inclusive atmosphere and support parental participation.
This blog will used to share case studies of schools and parent councils who are successfully reaching out to parents who would otherwise be marginalised or left out of the loop.
For example St Stephen’s primary school in Glasgow holds an International week every year, parents from diverse backgrounds (including Iraq, Eritrea and Pakistan) are invited to teach classes songs or dances from their home countries to be performed on the Friday. All the parents are invited to attend the performance and bring food to be shared.
More examples of good practice to follow!