Imagine how it feels to join a new school but not understand what your teacher is saying in class, what the headteacher is talking about in an assembly, or what the other children are calling in the playground. Imagine this experience is that of your own child and you can’t explain to a teacher that they are scared, or is a gifted musician or is struggling with Maths.
Our bilingual support workers are native speakers in their target languages and are able to bridge that gap for children who are new to English.
What bilingual support provides
- They can support multilingual children in reaching their potential.
- Supporting language acquisition, whilst continuing to develop their home language.
- Help children to access their academic learning.
- Support communication between the child, parents and school staff.
- Promote socialisation with their peers.
- Help to build a sense of belonging.
Bilingual support workers help our multilingual pupils access the curriculum, improve their use of English and promote inclusion.
How bilingual support is delivered
- In the classroom – we encourage bilingual support to be delivered within the classroom where appropriate. This ensures the child is not isolated or missing out on key academic learning. Our Bilingual support worker will sit next to the child, or with a group of children for whom their home language is the same and support them to access and understand the learning that is being taught within the lesson. This provides the opportunity to not only access the curriculum, but also for our Bilingual support worker to begin to fill in any gaps in their vocabulary to support English language acquisition.
- One-to-one – Sometimes a classroom may be too loud, or the teacher would like our Bilingual support worker to support the child outside of the classroom with the learning. It may also be that the school has arranged for our team to prepare lessons to deliver outside the classroom focussing on larger vocabulary gaps and particular areas.
- Small group work – An opportunity for children with the same home language and English ability to learn in small groups. Small group work is a great space for children to practice their emergent language and develop discussion skills.
- Online learning – Suitable for Key stage 2 and above, online lessons give the child and school more flexibility regarding the day and time. These lessons are focussed on key areas of language acquisition and our team provides all necessary planning.
Support when the home language isn’t available
As a team we are proud to provide Bilingual support in over 20 languages, however, we recognise this doesn’t cover all languages within our schools. If we aren’t able to provide Bilingual support in the child’s home language you can request ‘support through English’. Our skilled Bilingual support workers can provide support through English, using their skills and strategies for language requisition.
Requesting support
Please complete a Bilingual support and interpreter booking form.