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.

I feel the same way. As someone else said in another post says, I would not go to another country and expect them to speak my language, I personally would learn the local way of speaking.

There has to be money found somewhere, and the cost of continued translators must be huge. Whilst I think it should be two years, personally- yes. I agree with this. In the same way I would anyone moving to another country should be given support to learn the language, and when they don't, then that's a personal choice. The school provides opportunities to learn English, the translate ability of technology now is amazing, and the money should be spent benefiting all the children

I've been a teacher in a school where many parents didn't speak English and we had nowhere near this amount of interpreting support. Your school/ parents sound very lucky.
Surely though, any limit on use of interpreters should not be based on time in the UK but on subject matter discussed.
It's fine to use Gogle translate for 'Dont forget your PE kit on Mondays' or 'your child is doing well at maths'. Not so fine for 'we're worried that your child has xyz issues. Is there anything going on at home?'

The school are doing the right thing if the budget doesn’t stretch to cover this very generous service. I don’t understand however, why the school has such a dire attendance record? I don’t understand the correlation between a parent/family that don’t speak English, very well or at all, and attendance? Why are these children not attending school? Regardless of whether correspondence is in their first language, it doesn’t seem as though these parents understand or value the education system they’ve opted to enrol their children into.

This.

I'm thinking of all the English people who move to Wales, some of whom refuse to learn Welsh, respond to job adverts with abuse when it asks for applicants to be able to speak Welsh, complain about local meetings like parish councils being conducted in Welsh and insist on it being done in English and who would throw an absolutely hissy fit if school letters were only sent in Welsh and I wonder where all these MNs are who would absolutely learn the language of the country they are in if they lived there.

I wonder whether they would have the same response if schools in Wales started refusing to send out bilingual letters because it's faster and therefore cheaper to just send them in welsh.

Eh?

Dd school has polish/french/spanish/italian etc parents. It would be too expensive. And all of these mums at least speak english.
I learnt spanish to gcse in 1 year of evening clases and alevel in 2 yrs of 3hr per week.

By y2 most kids would be able to translate for parents letters at least.
The important bit of reports is the meeting or not.
I could probably understand enough of a parents evening i several different languages.

This is evidence of a lack of integration. Becoming a resident really should include an expectation of learning English.
I have known a number of cases where the manwon't allow his wife to learn English as he wants to remain in control. This is not good for hi swife.
I think there are more benefits from stopping spending money on translaters which is taking money and funds away from English speakers.

Are they refusing to allow a translator to attend or saying they can't pay for it anymore if the family wants one?

The need for a translator in a hospital to the need for a translator in a hospital isn't comparable. Eg One might be for giving consent to a medical procedure.
In many other countries however, hospital staff aren't required to speak English.

Same with many schools. Our dcs are already having a difficult time with funding being cut. Why should it be used for this service when the parents should be adapting to the country they call home? They need to put in the hours esp if English speaking lessons are being offered for free ffs which is alsonat the tax payers expense.

This makes me uneasy. The desired effect would be that these parents learn English and the school saves money. But I went to a school that had a lot of refugee children. Growing up with them and seeing their lives and struggles, I'm not sure how realistic that is.

Many Welsh people don't speak Welsh every meeting I've ever been to has been Welsh first then English yes it takes longer but the point is its inclusive to Welsh people who don't speak the language Wales is not a good example here

I agree with this 100%

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?

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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

Agree with this. Budgets can only go so far.

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.

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.