Can I enrol my English speaking DS and DD in a polish Saturday school?

[HappyFirdayEveryone]

Reason being we are looking to move to Poland for around 2-3 years (maybe longer depending on how things go) because DH wants to do a masters which is offered at one of the Technology Universities. He hasn’t applied yet because he working on his own polish with group and individual lessons. (The masters is taught in English but learning polish to at least a basic standard is a little bit essential when moving to Poland). I am also going to the group classes (but no individual lessons for me - yet! I’m enjoying it so considering it).

We would be looking to go in August/September 2025. DS would be 8 then and DD 5. (Currently 6 and 3). They would be going to school in Poland so I would like to make sure they have some knowledge of polish however little it is.

We don’t have a big polish community in our area. I know there are polish Saturday schools from looking on Google and our nearest would be an hour away.

Are non polish children allowed to enrol in these schools? Would they be able to integrate and learn anything?

Would it be worth the 2 hours travelling? Or is it best to try and do something different (I don’t know what)?

Will they catch up naturally if we just put them in school in Poland without Saturday school in the UK?

I think you'd have to ask the school. I suspect that unless there are lots of play activities, your DC might feel a bit left out given that most children will be fluent (I'm guessing - it may be that the other children won't be). I know a lot of children who go, but they all have Polish parents.

On the other hand, DS learnt to understand a lot of Polish in primary school (English speaking), and to speak a bit, because he had a lot of Polish friends. I suspect that they will pick it up fine when they get there, but a few lessons beforehand might help.

I know a couple of girls with one Polish parent and one English. They struggled at Polish Saturday school because they spoke English at home, and Polish only when visiting their relatives; most of the others had two Polish parents and spoke Polish at home so were a lot more fluent.

It may vary from school to school, and maybe you could go for a taster session to see what it might be like.

Thank you both for your replies. I think contacting the school and asking the questions would clear these us easily. We could ask for a taster day(s). I was probably also wondering whether other people had done this and how it worked out.

@lanthanum I think you’ve just made the case FOR polish Saturday school. The main purpose for us would be language acquisition and exposure not subject knowledge (that’s an added benefit). If you have known children of one polish parent struggle in polish Saturday school then how are my 2 going to feel in polish real school.

I don't have experience with Polish but my neighbours' kids with one German parent have found very varying levels of fluency at the German language nursery and Saturday school they attended.

They picked up much more of the language from having a German nanny for several years. You could consider that depending on your childcare arrangements (round here in greater London I reckon it would be possible to get a Polish speaking after school nanny through e.g. Koru Kids).

How about DuoLingo to start them off?

Would it be better to get a tutor once a week? It will just take up an awful lot of your time on a Saturday.

Would you be able go enril them into an international school in Poland where they follow the UK curriculum and teach in English? If you are planning to return to the UK that might be better than enrolling them in a Polish school.

Ask the specific school. Enrollment is usually around May for the next academic year, if they have spaces they should take your children. Children usually speaks English on breaks. Only some will speak fluent Polish, most speak broken language and prefer speak English. Don't expect too much. My friend enrolled her dd with similar reason last year and now she can recognise some words, recognise if someone speaking polish on streets. You can find Polish songs on you tube. Which area do you live? Maby there is some Polish comunity, clubs around you?. Ps. Sorry for my broken English I am Polish.

Children pick up languages very quickly. My daughter had only English and a little French for the first 5 years of her life and then went to local school, she had no previous knowledge of Luxembourgish and was fluent in 3 months. She then went on to do her education in German and French.
Last night I was talking with a teenager who came to Germany last year from the Ukraine. She spoke no German before she came and her level is much higher than mine already.
The only thing I would say is that my language levels got way behind my daughter and made it difficult sometimes to help with homework and speak with other parents or children.
If I could do it again I would have put more effort into learning the languages myself and maybe that is where you should spend your time rather than travelling far to a Saturday school.

DuoLingo sounds like a good idea. As does the suggestions for songs.

Not so sure about a tutor. A tutor would be online and I think they are possibly a bit young to sit though this even with our encouragement/involvement. That’s something to think about though. We could put the time into a family lesson on a Saturday and work on polish as a family as well as myself and DH putting extra effort into learning in the time we save.

British international school probably isn’t an option due to £££. We would be dropping down to one wage (mine). I have an ok wage but it won’t cover everything such as rent, food, bills, etc and private school fees for 2 kids. DH Uni fees are covered thankfully as he’s paying for it from his savings from his current job. Plus I think it would be great for them to experience the culture properly and have local friends which a British international school can’t do.

I agree kids can pick up languages quicker than adults. Myself and DH are both working on our language development in polish. Hard work, but quite fun and feels rewarding.

@Askok thank you for the insight. That’s really helpful.

Children do pick up language remarkably quickly, once fully immersed.

One child in DD's class was fairly fluent in English when she started, which I think was largely down to watching a lot of CBeebies. I know I've seen some Peppa Pig in Polish - that sort of programme is quite helpful as it's quite simple language, with quite a lot of repetition.

When I was a 6th former and then a university student reading languages, I used to get some really good material from Grant and Cutler, the languages bookshop. It's now a part of Foyles.

They do have one or two things in Polish for children.

I would give them a call and ask.

https://www.grantandcutler.com/section/EM

You might find the online Polish classes offered by CityLit interesting:

https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/languages/european/polish

You definitely can. DD attended one that had a polish as an additional language class. It was filled with polish kids who were struggling to pick up the language for various reasons. It's mostly cultural though, it'll be a good introduction for your kids to be honest as they celebrate all the main festivals.
Be mindful they're mostly all Catholic, like polish schools.

You will need to ask if they have provision for novice learners. Many Polish schools assume fairly fluent conversational skills and focus on reading and writing as these are the areas that bilingual children need to develop. Once a week isn’t enough for immersion.

You can ask, but if they are keen to create a Polish-only environment for their Polish speakers, kids without Polish at a certain level might not be welcome (I have run English Saturday classes for English speaking kids in Japan, and we have had to be really strict about starting language levels for precisely this reason).

Be prepared for hard work if you are going to move your kids to another language system. Kids are not magic sponges. They can pick up a "superficial" level of fluency that looks impressive at first glance fairly quickly. But it takes a long time for them to become properly fluent in a language including all the writing skills and the sort of vocabulary you need to succeed in academic subjects at school.

The UK is unusually good at helping second language learners, and yet even here kids who enter at a later age with no English have greater odds of struggling later; the older they are when the move, the higher the odds of difficulties as time goes on.

In addition, you will probably also have to be responsible for doing English literacy with your kids at home and keeping that up as well. It takes organization and hard work! (Not being a downer, just describing realistically the challenges involved, based on a LOT of experience of kids who have moved about from one language system to another at various ages).

Is there a particular reason he has to do it in Poland? And what are the employment benefits of doing it and is the course a high quality one? From what you’ve said it doesn’t sound like you have an existing connection to the country so the plan itself just sounds quite random.

Often if people are moving abroad with children they have the ex pat packages and international schooling sorted and you accept the hassle for the pay package. It sounds like you’d all be potentially sacrificing a fair bit to enable the masters. You will be asking a lot of your children if you’re going to put them in normal schools without any prior language. If you can’t get into the Saturday schools I’d definitely look at tutoring. My 7yo would be angry at being uprooted from her friends but would be desperately unhappy if she couldn’t communicate well enough to make new ones.

I'd try to make it as fun for the kids as possible. A two hour round trip to polish school every Saturday doesn't sound amazing for them tbh.

I'd try and find a native polish speaker and pay them to come and hang out with your kids as a nanny/babysitter (or with you as well) and play with them in Polish, chat to them in Polish, read to them in Polish etc. Have TV time everyday in Polish. Have a weekly film night in Polish.

Immerse them as much as possible, in as fun a way as possible. Remember that you're asking quite a lot of them with this move, don't put them off before you've even started with Saturday school.

Is the Masters he is interested in one which is also offered at other Universities, either in the UK or in Germany, perhaps?

What is this particular Masters called?

What a fantastic opportunity for your kids, and it’s a great age for them to be immersed in another language and culture when you move to Poland.

if the Saturday school isn’t suitable you might be able to find a Polish speaker nearby who could do a weekly conversation and play session with your dc. Good luck with the move to Poland.

Can you get Polish kids' tv via your tv provider? I know some expat families here (not Polish but other European languages) who use their native language tv to help the kids keep up