Challenges of teaching when kids have other primary languages..?

[WeaselPax]

Hi, keen to hear from teachers and parents familiar with this situation. Most of the primaries around us (zone 2 London) have a majority of children with English as a second language (up to 60%). Does this make it harder to teach and therefore a less good experience for the children who do have English as their first language? I would assume so but keen to hear firsthand accounts.

My school has around 20% of pupils who do not speak any English, and a further 30% who speak some English. We just get on with it! Children pick up the language very quickly when they’re immersed in it. Plus we have a lot of support staff who speak their home language.

I am not in London or the UK and I am not a teacher. My kids go to a very multicultural primary where they sometimes get kids without English. The kids with English as a second are given extra English lessons in addition to their regular English classes and in no time do start speaking the language very fluently.
From my understanding, the kids have no negative effect and they even pick up phrases from the new child's language.

Well of course teachers do just get on with it, there is no other option. However if I am honest, the arrival of a child with little or no English means teacher and TA time is reduced from the children already being supported unless you’re fortunate enough to be in a school which has allocated resources to ESL children.

76 % EAL at my primary school. I can't begin to describe how hard it is. For the children and adults.

In a situation where EAL is the norm the teaching is geared to it.

So in the same way that in a reception class of 30 with 29 native speakers and one who has never seen English before the k e who has never seen English before will get extra TA support and groups etc, in the reverse situation the main class is geared to EAL (so a lot of use of pictures, gesture, etc to support words) with native English speakers being extended by TAs.

I teach Reception in a multicultural town, approximately 60% EAL. To be honest, the bigger issues come when children start later with no English. In Reception, using visuals is second nature to us anyway and the children are so young they pick it up amazingly quickly, much quicker than an adult would (often end up with much better language skills than our deprived British children!). I understand it's much harder for teachers further up the school to suddenly receive a child part way through the year with no English though.

It's good for the children to experience different languages and cultures. I actually think it's far easier to deal with EAL in an area where it's prevalent. I use to work in a predominantly white British village school and some teachers would panic like mad if we suddenly gained an EAL child as they didn't have a clue what to do with them. It must be quite isolating for the children too. Whereas, where I am now we're so use to dealing with this.

The children in Reception just get on with it and muck in together regardless of language. Play is play.