School refusing to provide translator

When in Rome.......
I lived in France for a while and immediately began making huge efforts to learn the language.
Make no mistake, it was extremely hard work but it should be obligatory in my opinion.
If you have children and you want them to succeed in life, you should do it for their sake at the very least.

It’s incredibly disrespectful to move to any country and not learn the language. The parents should learn English. The school is quite right not to pander to their refusal to integrate into British society any longer.

Education should put children at the forefront of every decision. This decision is divisive

You can’t put kids first without the money to pay for teachers. Caretakers, cleaners, cooks etc

If this is a poor school with large numbers of FSM - then the school will be poorer as they receive lower funding from parents.

If parents want an interpreter, then they find one or pay for one.

You can’t expect and English education with tout speaking the language.

If they're still offering the English classes then I think its ok. Presumably the children will know enough English in most cases to be able to translate too. I do know people in communities who don't learn English because they never have a need to, despite living here decades. If they have a need to (to facilitate their child's education) then they are more likely to learn it. If translation services are always provided then there is no incentive.

I do think though that they should expect there to be a drop in parent engagement and a few issues with things like permission slips not being returned.

It's all very well saying they should learn English, but how? And if they don't, it's the children who suffer.

I understand your uneasiness. Is there scope to explore use of voluntary translation services - putting a call out to bilingual parents? Reusing past translated letters?

It's tough, I get it. I sit on a public sector board and there is finite money and seemingly infinite need.

@SpringViolet

I have travelled all over the world extensively and have never seen it in any other country.

Is this true?
Do you know what they do in other countries? Nothing? I seem to remember a family member being ill abroad and having to pay for their own translator.

I think all these translation services, although provided with the best of intentions, are actually not helping people.

Perfectly reasonable in my view. I do think they could continue to provide letters in the target language though; surely that's no extra work or expense when the basic template is already there.

Why should the school use essential funds on people that can't be arsed to learn the language of the country they live in? You wouldn't get it in Spain, or France etc so why should you expect it here? They're offering lessons, it's the parents fault if they don't take them

I think you must be quite a poor school governor if you don't understand the reasoning behind this. If you were competent in your role, you should be aware of the financial realities facing school, the difficulties they have with budgets and spending cuts, not to mention recruiting and retaining teachers etc. Schools get so little funding and yet are expected to achieve so much, it is obvious that they cannot have all the resources they need. What would you prefer they cut instead?

Perhaps a better use of your time might be seeing what you could do to help the school raise money, instead of complaining on the internet.

I know three people who moved to the UK not speaking a word of English. Two became fluent within 2-3 years, have fully integrated, have both English friends and friends from their original countries, and other countries. The third, does not speak fluent English but absolutely has learned enough to get by.

Even when I go on holiday to a country in which I do not know the language, I learn key phrases before going. It's basic courtesy and respect.

In my opinion, the school have made the right decision. Providing a translator for a year is good. Parents having been here for 5 years and not even learning the basics is ridiculous, regardless of what brought them to the UK in the first place.

I agree entirely. And, even if everyone else is right that the parents should have learnt the language, (which I vehemently don’t agree they are) that’s not the kids’ fault is it? It’s the kids that will suffer as a result. Education should put children at the forefront of every decision. This decision is divisive. As a side note, I recently left a school that had no money for an additional printer but bought a £5k coffee machine in the same breath. Please don’t believe that all schools spend their money responsibly. The same school had a CEO, an executive principal and a head teacher. The top two are both on six figure salaries. The head is nearing that. If any of the three were ever off…it made no difference. They collectively bring nothing to the school. Education is full of wonderful people. It’s also often (not always - my current school’s leadership team is brilliant) led by corrupt, ignorant, unempathetic shits. It’s a huge part of why so many people don’t want to teach anymore.

And yours is exactly the right sort of approach.

And I would apply the same thing to Brits wanting to live overseas. Learn the effing language.

Just got back from Canada and had great fun in Quebec City flaunting my pidgin French while the locals did the same with their English

So presumably you think these parents are also arrogant in just expecting everybody else to provide and pay for, translators so they can speak their own language?

Child of immigrants from non English speaking country, and agree with school’s decision, finite resources and this sadly isn’t the best use of the schools money. That money needs to be spent on teaching staff and resources for children- not their parents. Besides- You cannot force parents to engage if they are not interested, if anything school is enabling it.

My children attend a school like OPs. A big group of the persistent absentees are children with very substantial family and cultural ties abroad - loads of my kid’s classmates go back to their country of origin for a month over Easter or Christmas even though the holiday is only two weeks, or they leave in early July for two months abroad or their relatives in Asia are getting married so what would be a Saturday event if their family was local becomes at least a week off school.

Theres plenty of other reasons for absence of course, but it’s a significant one in some schools.

I can understand not providing a translator, however the school could send out emails in a different language, using technology to translate the email, for no cost.

I’ll probably get jumped on but we’ve pandered to this for long enough. I dread to think how many millions (billions) has been spent in translation services with tax payers money over the last 20 years. It would have been better spent on SEND provision!

I have travelled all over the world extensively and have never seen it in any other country.

If you want to move to a country which speaks a different language, access free healthcare, education, housing and financial benefits, the onus is on you to learn that language not the host country to teach you. Nobody is forced to live on this island.

How do people manage to work if they can’t speak the language when we are told time and again that migrants want to come here to work! It rather paints a false narrative that migrants have low intellect and are helpless so don’t know that they need to speak/learn English.

English is probably the easiest language to pick up. It’s used everywhere, the vast majority of globally known movies and music are in English.

Agree with this. Budgets can only go so far.

I understand that there is a Microsoft app which translates what is spoken into written language for many languages and vice versa. I haven’t used it myself but a teacher told me that it is used in classrooms to translate what they say to students who are not fluent in English yet. Apparently you can use this on your mobile and could be used for meetings.

You can also use an app to take a photo of written text and then translate this into another language so this can be used for letters etc.
This might not perfect but it won’t cost the school money out of their over stretched budget.

As a child whose parents were these people- it’s absolutely fine. My friends and their parents were all the same, I ended up doing most of the translating for me and my younger siblings.

The teachers understood this and always made sure I knew exactly what to tell them so I wouldn’t get things confused, same with letters and school trips- all in English and it was more than fine.

My parents eventually learned English but still wouldn’t be enough for school comms/letters etc. and that’s fine since we are all grown up and have done very well for ourselves.

Schools have such little money and so many children, there are better ways to spend the money.

No sorry after 1 year I expect someone who is looking to live here long term/permanently to have learnt some English. Maybe one year is a bit short. Possibly 2 at a push. If I moved abroad I would be looking to learn some before moving unless its a refugee situation.

There are many apps now that will translate reasonably well. Or the child will have to translate.

My dh learnt English before coming to the UK and I learnt enough of his language for when we visit family. Its fair

I agree with you! English is not my first language but I have worked hard to learn it so I’m able to help my children with school work and everything else that I need to do. I work in healthcare and one of my colleagues who is been in U.K. for 17 years does not even understand most of things and it’s hard work working together and she is not even bothered learning English

Our school switched to virtual newsletters surely the school can do this and translate it? It's unfortunate they can no longer afford translaters but the news letter and letters home is such an easy fix

So English speaking going to other countries and expecting to engage in own language are arrogant, but speakers of other languages who come here should be provided with translators and be engaged in their own language?

I wonder if the fact that the school (and wider society) IS providing, almost, on demand, translation services is one reason that, even after living in the UK for 5+ years, no English has been learnt?