Children speaking their first language to eachother at primary school

[languageissues]

Does anyone have any experience of this? Where there is a handful of children whose first language is not English, who are young (say between 5 and 8) do teachers require them to speak English at school? If not, how do they supervise as they cannot understand what is being said? I am concerned about bullying and not appropriate language being used (my dc is one of the children affected) and I wondered how will the teachers react if we ask them to require that English is spoken while on school grounds? I would be really grateful for views.

Sorry your child is being bullied OP, you need to deal with that but the language issue is a red herring. Nothing to do with it.

Plenty of Welsh schools require, or strongly encourage, children to speak Welsh at playtime when their first language is English indeed they do, and it often ends with uproar from the parents and pushing the children even further away from speaking Welsh as soon as they're old enough to exercise the choice.

Please, separate the two issues.
If your child is being bullied, please report it.
If your child is being excluded, or struggling to make friends, please talk to the teacher.
But please don't stop these children communicating in their mother tounge.

X-posted with everyone there!

Talk to the school, they should investigate what's happening and then set up a meeting with you and your child. Your child needs to have someone in school they can tell immediately there's a problem.
Have you kept a note of dates, times and what your child told you?
Then school set up a meeting with the offenders and parents (several separate ones if necessary) and make it clear and formal that the behaviour is not to be tolerated and there will be consequences if it continues. They let the children and their parents know that the situation is being actively monitored.
Then the school do their job. Bullying is a safeguarding issue, intimidation and sexual taunts are not acceptable in a school.

Hang on. So, in a minority language, your daughter is being bullied?
She needs to tell the teacher. It makes no difference what language it was in - even if it was in English, would there have been an adult nearby to hear?

I suppose as a parent of the child being bullied in the non-English language, your concern is that the teacher can't understand and therefore may not address the bullying issue?
I guess the teacher has to judge if your DD is telling the truth when she says "Miss, soandso just said I have a face like a twat in xxxlanguage" or whether she is stirring up trouble for the other children.

I would advise seeking a meeting with the teacher to discuss the situation. Any chance you could teach her the words to listen out for?

I totally understood your original post OP. And I completely agree with you that they should require English in these circumstances. Speak to the school.

They let the children and their parents know that the situation is being actively monitored.

It's not though is it? They can't 'actively monitor' things said in a language they don't understand.

My child is bilingual and speaks a different mother language to the rest of his class. The headteacher has set up a little group with others who speak his language from other nearby schools so they can play together and interact using their home language. She said it's vital for their self esteem that they learn that both their languages are equally important.

Maybe the teacher could ask the children to speak English when he/she is present? In that way they would understand what is being said. If they aren't close by on the playground then the language is irrelevant as the teacher would still have to rely on your child's report of what was said.

Good idea.

Bill, why is requiring English going to sort the bullying situation? The only difference that would make would be that a teacher would understand if they said something inappropriate within earshot. There is no way a teacher can follow the children around the playground and check that everything they say is appropriate. Unless they can get the children to understand that bullying is unacceptable, it won't change anything.

sorry, cross-post; that seems a reasonable compromise

I am already dealing with the bullying aspects, it is just that the language being used makes the situation harder to deal with, but thank you very much for all the replies, it is very helpful to know that most people think I am being U about the language.

I would ask to speak to the school and explain exactly what is happening. Explain how they are using the language as a cover and be explicit about the words used.

The teachers need to deal with the bad behaviour, irrespective of language used. Maybe you should give the teachers a short glossary so they can listen out for the words.

By making it a language issue, you will also face huge opposition from some parents who will see it as a racist/othering move by the school rather than an attempt to prevent bullying.

Offer to teach the staff to say 'I will be speaking to your parents about this' in the language, to make them think they understand!

Cory as another poster said above, when it's in another language it comes down to a teacher's gut instinct of whether or not the child is telling the truth or 'stirring up trouble'. And there's no guarantee it is correct. Yet all the other children in the class have a higher level of protection because they can monitor what's going on in class. I don't prioritise these children's right to speak their mother tongue in class higher than the right of a child not to be bullied and abused in front of the whole class and their teacher without protection.

If these children are allowed to speak their first language in class but have used that permission to bully another child they have abused that privilege and should have it withdrawn.

What do teachers do when there are allegations of verbal bullying out of any adults' earshot? It must happen pretty often.

'Maybe you should give the teachers a short glossary so they can listen out for the words.'

Have any of you actually tried that? I have.
It's near-impossible if you don't speak the language, and then you get the argument of
'I didn't say shir, I said sherr and that's a different word'
and lots of stropping and tears if the accussed is given to them. Better off working with body language with young children. And then the disappointed meeting with parents which often reaps positive results.

My DDs go to a bilingual school. Most children will only speak the second language used there at school, but some do use both at home, as mine do. DD1 also has a third language and a small amount of a fourth, and both are languages a small number of other children in the school speak at home. DD1 doesn't get an awful lot of opportunity to practice these languages so I wouldn't be happy with the school if they tried to insist the children didn't use their own languages. That said, I'm not actually sure what the norm is at their school, I would guess a mixture of both the languages used at school, possibly one more than the other.

I work in a very diverse environment and we have mandated English as the lab language as it's the common tongue. People are expected to converse everywhere in English to promote a spirit of inclusivity, to the point where two Chinese speakers chatting over coffee would be expected (and will) switch to English if a non Chinese speaker joins the room, for example.

I think it is a totally different issue to forbidding a child from using their native language in the native country (Welsh and Wales spring to mind). The language of the vast majority of English schools is English and if teachers are to be expected to police playgrounds then the lingua franca needs to be English. Children without fluent English should be supported to become so.

Mandating English as the workplace language came about precisely because of a bullying incident, FWIW.

The teachers would probably find it hilarious that a parent thought they could "require English to be spoken".

Like others said, the bullying should be dealt with but the language left alone. The teacher may find it trickier to police the bullying without knowing the language but have faith before storming in with your requirements.

Either it's a bilingual school, in which people communicate in two languages, or you mandate a main one. Otherwise it's chaos.

I wouldn't request the "English only"requirement as it smacks of prejudice (and I am Welsh & fully bilingual). I would however address the bullying with the teacher. As other posters have said, bullies will find any way they can - and if they are forced to speak English this will simply be another rod beat your child with.

Sort out the bullying. The language is a side-issue.