It would be very helpful if you could provide me with the total number of child immigrants in Devon.
We do not hold all the data that would be required to answer this question. While we do have access to information about some cohorts – e.g. children from Afghan refugee families resettled in Devon – there are other cohorts that we have no data at all about, or only rough estimates e.g. children of migrant workers recruited by Devon’s health and social care providers. We can be confident that if we added up the current number of child immigrants among migrant worker, refugee and asylum seeker communities in Devon, the total would be well over 1000
How many child immigrants need English language support?
We do not hold the data that would be needed to answer this query. However, in our experience, the majority of child immigrants need English language support.
What challenges do these children face in terms of language proficiency?
Challenges can include:
• * Having to learn a new alphabet
• * For children who have had limited or no access to education before arriving in UK, the challenge of learning to read and write for the first time in a 2nd language
• * Trying to access the wider curriculum in school while still learning English
• * Insufficient EAL (English as an Additional language) support – e.g. because of lack of experience of/expertise in EAL in some schools; lack of funding to pay to bring in EAL support; lack of capacity/gaps in availability of suitable EAL support