School highlights language barriers

SUE FEA/ID 121964

121964 SUE FEA Global Kiwis: (From left) Brazilian Raul Ramos, 7, Jose Olivares, 8, of Chile, and Gavin Torres, 7, of the Philippines, getting English coaching from teacher aid Nicky Fisher at Queenstown Primary School.

Relevant offers

Queenstown

A force to be reckoned with DQ boss quits job after 8 months Hang-glider pilot fined for flying after licence revoked Tree fall investigated Southern skifields preferred venues Course through Wanaka stays Man killed by falling tree Oakridge companies go under Falling tree causes death Gibbston river trail saved by fundraiser auction

The happy sound of children in primary schools around Queenstown these days is beginning to resemble more of a United Nations assembly than a school one.

About 30 percent of pupils at Queenstown's 160-pupil St Joseph's School do not speak English as their first language and at nearby Queenstown Primary School that figure is 77 out of 598 pupils.

St Joseph's School principal Phil O'Connell-Cooper said it was an increasing challenge to find the resources to help some of these children, who could arrive at the school speaking no English or a moderate amount.

The Government supplied a small amount of funding to help, which was used to employ a teacher aid for a few days a week, who acted as an English as a second language teacher.

About 10 children were receiving special English assistance through the Government funding while there were almost 20 who probably needed it in the school.

"It's part of life in Queenstown, it's a reality that a lot of children here come from other countries," Mrs O'Connell-Cooper said.

However, it was a challenge to help these children learn English to the standard necessary for them to complete the New Zealand curriculum, she said.

"We have a mix of children, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, German, Austrian, Brazilian, Nepalese ...

you name it," Mrs O'Connell-Cooper said.

Their families worked in all sectors, including business, hotels and restaurants.

Fortunately children picked up languages quickly, but it was often very time-consuming for classroom teachers.

The biggest difficulty was the language barrier in communicating with their parents.

Queenstown Primary School principal John Western said he felt sorry for the parents who often got "left behind" .

"As a school we have a situation where we have children having to interpret for their parents," he said.

The numbers of foreign-speaking pupils had grown to such an extent that he was considering printing the school newsletter in other languages, such as Portuguese. The school now had 14 Brazilians on its roll.

Sometimes school staff struggled to get clear communication, Mr Western said.

In a classic case one foreign child turned up at school equipped with a pair of swimming togs for a climb up Ben Lomond, he said.

Mr Western said his school was large enough to offer specialist English help in small groups, usually an hour four times a week using the Government funding it received topped up with school funds.

A specialist teacher aid monitored and designed individual programmes for each child, so they learned quickly, he said.

Of the 77 children who did not speak English as their first language, 35 were now receiving special assistance, the rest having received help in their first year or two at the school.

Classroom teachers were expected to meet the rest of their needs, which was "a huge ask" , Mr Western said.

"The teacher aids are fantastic, but we'd like more support in the classroom," he said.