School refusing to provide translator

Not the school’s responsibility, it’s the UK, learn our language! You wouldn’t move to Russia and demand a translator? Seriously, is this a joke?

Our school had Polish parents who spoke English to come to parents' night and translate for the others. They were delighted to help and parents could be sure of understanding. And the following year the same parents had picked up enough English to translate for themselves.

Yes, pretty high numbers. It was kind of accepted that migrants would struggle with the local language so local authorities would pay to translate a lot of documents into multiple languages. A lot of public services offered interpreters. I actually worked for a couple of years at a state funded facility to help foreign residents. DH did a lot of interpreting work.

There were also free language classes which helped me when I first arrived. I was quite lucky as I find it quite easy to learn languages but I knew many people who struggled even though they tried.

Where you lived, were there very high numbers of migrants speaking multiple languages needing translation/interpretating services? It would be lovely to live in such a place. I don't blame these parents for not learning English. It's hard work and they have no need because everything they need to know is provided in their own language.

reading your OP I simply cant believe the sheer indulgence and waste of providing all these translators for years for parents that have not learnt English. Tax payers money! utterly criminal. Never heard of anything so extravagant and wasteful in all my decades in education. I sincerely hope this whoever is responsible for this misuse of public funds gets the book thrown at them

No. I was working, but I didn't need state assistance personally. However, extensive support was provided for those who needed it, regardless of their immigration status.

Contrary to what you seem to think, people can't generally just rock up in the UK and demand state support. Unless they are seeking asylum, they generally need to have an appropriate means of supporting themselves in order to get a visa. Asylum seekers are not permitted to work and support themselves, so they have no option but to rely on the state for support. That was the same in the country where I lived, though I have no idea whether that is still the case now.

I lived in the Far East for 7 years, we had to provide translators for anything official, except the school which was British International so everything from there was in English

So you were working and provided with state assistance as part of that? You hadn't just arrived in a country potentially with little or no means to support yourself and expected the state to not only provide you with housing, healthcare and education, but also translation services?

It depends on the age of the child, coming from someone where English was the 2nd language at home it was a given the children would translate for the parents.

I was used to take my grandparents to doctors/ hospital appointments to translate. Obviously if the children are really young or SEN this won't work, but the parents could bring a family member/ friend to translate. Finances are tight and obviously this is a cost to the school. It's probably not best practice, but everyone is trying to tighten their belts and cut costs.

Don't particularly want to state the country as it's potentially outing. It was in Asia.

I was there on a work visa, and yes, that meant that I had to be self supporting, just as it would if people were on a work visa in the UK. However, it was obviously different for asylum seekers etc or immigrants with permanent residence status who fell on hard times etc. Basically they followed very similar principles to the UK Immigration rules.

Can I ask which country that was, and the terms of immigration (did you have to be working/self supporting)?

It's important to maintain the home language but supporting parents who do not bother to learn the local language after being here for years seems to be unhelpful. Better to spend the money on the children - and school budgets are very tight.

This!

I think the letters should be sent out to all the parents in the relevant language as they are available, & being sent out to foreign school parents who have moved there for under 1yr. However, I think translation services should be withdrawn, unless teachers are willing & able to do it in their own time. It is not always a case of laziness & unwillingness to learn. Some immigrants have little, or no, education in their own country, especially reading/ writing, but their speaking/ listening skills are good. Unless they are the only family of a particular language in their area, most immigrants will get by, as they can & do seek out help from others. I say this, having worked in a charity for a few years, helping foreigners (claim benefits, housing issues, money advice etc) & am now working in hospitality, with a mix of English & non-English speaking staff.

My parents were immigrants & my father knew very little English when he first arrived. He had worked In Australia for 4yrs prior, & through this & with the help of other immigrants, he picked up enough English to get by. My mother came over a couple of years after he had settled, & was a housewife (looking after my siblings & myself, roughly one child per year for 5yrs). We never attended nursery. By the time my younger siblings came along, they were offered “remedial” help, which my older sister & I never had. We were encouraged to speak English at home; our English is better than our mother tongue.

For Parents’ Evenings, we took turns in attending & translating for each other’s appointments ie I went to my older sister’s meeting; she went to our brother’s etc. No need for a translator & the schools never objected/ teachers never complained as my mother made the effort to attend. When we were in high school, my mum worked part time as a kitchen washer so no English required. My mother attended free English classes for years when we were in high school, but she found it very difficult as she had never attended school in her own country: it was too expensive.

Her English is still very, very limited: can’t read English or hold a conversation, but she was very resourceful & travelled by bus/ train to visit her children, when any of us studied/ worked away. We just had to take her on the journey (public transport) once. She even managed to travel to the right destination despite strikes/ transport cancellations/ change in transport!

The new move will be good for both parents & children.

Why? They're not saying that they CANT have a translator, school are saying 'we don't have the money to do this forever for everyone ' so if one is needed the family need to provide.

Absolutely! Do families really expect the state to pay for this? Surely they are in the best position to supply their own interpreter. They must know someone who speaks English well, or how are they even surviving?

Or is it something schools are taking on themselves, without requests from the families? I think schools' duty is just to tell them that they need to attend a meeting and will need to bring an interpreter if necessary.

It really does come down to 'are you fully committed to life in the UK?', for these families, doesn't it?

I think it's reasonable, particularly when the school is offering EFL to parents and the one year intro period.
However, when I worked in education in East London, admittedly a good while ago, a big problem was mothers not being permitted to attend the college to learn English by their husbands, including female only classes and classes at local community centres, so I am concerned on that front.

Sounds reasonable to me. When we moved to a country with a different language, we expected to have to speak that language. If you don't speak the language of the country you are living in, you will always be isolated and at a disadvantage. (Well-off ex-pat Brits in some countries being the only exception I can think of, but even then, they are actually missing out on a lot of what the country they are living in has to offer!)

I think that the parents actually owe it to their children to learn at least conversational vocabulary, and they are getting free lessons for that. There is always Google translate for letters, and there are likely to be translation services available for very formal matters (eg local authority matters).

I accept that some people find it harder than others to learn new languages but most people can learn the basics, and acquiring at least some basic skills in English will probably also help them in other areas of day-to-day life - and even perhaps open up new opportunities for them.

I do think, however, it would be worth finding out why parents aren't engaging with the lessons currently on offer - wrong place, wrong time, wrong teachers etc? Perhaps there would be a better take-up if the classes were run by a community organisation of some kind rather than the school? I also think that it is a bad idea to rely on the children to translate for their parents.

The only justifications I can think of for providing translation services is in the NHS (where lack of communication is going to cause serious problems all round) and in the police/court system.

I've been thinking about this a bit, the parents don't have to learn English to get by in the UK. I make no moral judgement, its just a fact, they don't have to learn, translators/interpretaters will be provided as needed forever. So really, if its hard, why should they bother.

The school is helping by providing interpreters for the first year and free language lessons, but the the effort needs to come from both sides.
Schools don’t have infinite resources to pay for interpreting services for years and years.
My family were immigrants, I know exactly how hard it is to settle and integrate in a new country, but it’s still necessary to make an effort.

Also people seem to have missed the school is offering English courses for the parents. There are loads of these out there for free everywhere you go.

But as it goes you can lead the horse to water you can’t make it drink. It’s like people signing t&cs before reading them. you agreed that you read and understood those now you have to live with the consequences.

Urgh! Just learn English. Just attend the free classes.

and sod all thought given to why this might not always be as easy as it seems.

If they move somewhere with a different language learn it! It’s unacceptable not to. Also English as it is computer language is the most common second language taught in non English speaking countries. And before you jump on me, English is not my first language, it’s not the second language I learned either. However the first second language taught where I come from has now been English for the last 30 years. Some schools still offer Latin as well as it’s required for certain jobs.

But it impairs the quality of healthcare, and that impacts not just the person who doesn't speak English but everyone else as well.

I started to learn BSL after going to A and E to do an ECG. A lovely couple where there, she was having a heart attack, her husband had forgotten his glasses, they were both Deaf.

No one could even ask for a name and address, let alone tell them what was happening.

Learning another language is very hard especially when you're trying to make ends meet but after 5 years they do need to make an effort to understand the basics of the school letters etc. I think it's tricky but it sounds like the school has done a lot so far and maybe some people are taking advantage of that because it's a lot of effort to integrate and learn an entire new language when they probably don't use it any other time.

Parents evenings and interpreting are definitely not matters for the PTA or governors!