School refusing to provide translator

[CapturedLeprechaun]

I'm on the Governing body for a school with a really high proportion of kids with English as a second language. It's over 80% of their pupils. Many of the parents speak little or no English at all. There are some families who have been here 5+ years where one or both parents speak no English at all still, and even a "your child has no PE kit, they need to wear their PE kit on Mondays and Wednesdays" wouldn't be understood.

The school always use translators for meetings with parents - either a staff member who speaks that language who is available, or else they have a telephone translator service that they pay for, so the phone is on loudspeaker and a translator translates the conversation.

This is done for all parents evenings/ attendance meetings/ SENCO meetings etc for parents who don't speak or understand English.

Important letters like school trips/consent forms are provided translated in the three most common languages spoken.

The school offers English classes to parents, one held in the school one morning a week in the hall, one held in the evening each week.

School has now said translators will only be provided to parents whose children have been at the school for less than a year. If your child has been at the school for more than a year and you are unable to understand English, no translator will be provided, due to staff shortages and costs, and you have to bring a friend/family member who can translate. Letters will only be provided in English, and parents can use the translate feature on google if they need to.

On the face of this, does this seem a reasonable decision? The head has announced this and I don't know why it doesn't sit right with me, and I can't really articulate why. It has a lot of support from the English speaking parents, but it feels... divisive, I guess? And most likely children who will suffer. Currently trying to weigh up whether this is something I should raise, or accept this is a reasonable step for the school to take.

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 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.

This!

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?