Polish child
 

Hi everyone,

I am an NQT and have a Polish girl in my year 2 class who has just joined us. She has no English at all. Does anyone have any ideas for activities she can do whilst the others are getting on with their independent work?

I feel well out of my depth and any advice would be a great help.

Thanks

Re: Polish child
 

clairelarris - Welcome to the forums!

A few questions, what is an NQT? and year 2 is in primary school?

In any case, is it possible to include your student in the activity but just at a lower level? Often, inclusion in the activity whether too difficult or not plays a big part in making the child feel welcome and accepted.

I take it there's no ESL support in your school? Are you able to spend some time with this student during this independant activity time? And one last question, does your student have normal Polish literacy skills for that age?

I have some basic worksheets with images prepared for younger ESL/EFL students but they are generally designed to be interactive www.mes-english.com/worksheets/

They may be helpful or at least give you some ideas. There are also 2 beginner phonics ebooks there.

Someone else may have some good suggestions for other sites with worksheets or activities you can print out.

Re: Polish child
 

What a life saver you are. Cheers!

NQT means newly qualified teacher - hence the panic stricken approach!

I think that she may have poor literacy skills anyway even in Polish - she may have special needs but I still need more time to work that one out. Her maths is really poor. She can't recognise numbers past twenty and basic addition is out of the question.

The links you posted will be really useful.

Thanks

Re: Polish child
 

I'm glad some of that helped. and I would never have been able to guess what NQT meant.

If you have a chance to talk with the parents, it's very important that they try to maintain and improve their daughter's literacy in Polish. The learning skills she gains from her L1 (first language) will transfer over into strong skills for learning English and dealing wih the new language environment.

Good luck!

Re: Polish child
 

hi claire,

My name is Lizzie and i have recently started the company 'spowage creations', making educational packs for children who have english as a second language - the first pack will be ready before the summer and works though national curriculum objectives from foundation stage to the end of key stage one. I hope this may be of help to you.

The activities are designed to be done either in a school classroom or at home with family members. It will allow the child to communicate in both Polish and English, and hopefully you may be able to asses whether the child has a special educational need, or if he/she is just struggling with their english.

My e-mail address is bejco06@bishopg.ac.uk if you would like any more information, or me to send one out to you as soon as they are published.

Thanks,
Liz