|
The Tower
of Babel in a single classroom?
Thirty
pupils, 19 different languages spoken. How does one teacher cope, let alone
teach?
RENE
TALLIARD admits she sometimes struggles with her emotions when her pupils say to
her “We don’t want any more war.”
“They just
say to me, ‘No more fighting, no more war,’ and I must confess I don’t deal with
that very well,” she says.
Her
difficulty is understandable. On a map in her classroom, pupils have written
where they come from. It reads like an encyclopaedia of world trouble sports.
Mrs
Talliard’s Year 6 class in this primary in Brent, north-west London, may be the
most linguistically diverse in
Britain:
30 pupils with 19 different languages. The children come from Afghanistan, Iraq,
Somalia, Sri Lanka, Eritrea, Ghana, Turkey, India and Jamaica, among others.
Many are refugees, although exact numbers are difficult to pin down. One boy
stepped off a plane alone at Heathrow three years ago, a nine year old unable to
speak a word of English and without a single family member to support.
Brent
council found him a foster home and a school, but the early days are tough. “I
was crying a lot,” he says. “I could not talk to my parents. I feel better now.”
Another
boy, although born in this country, talks of trips back to Sri Lanka where his
extended family were caught up in the civil war and his aunt died in the
tsunami.
Another
speaks of his joys at living in a city with electricity, having grownup in Kabul
during Afghanistan’s war of five years ago. He remembers being unable to sleep
for the rattle of gunfire and the roar of fighter planes. His family fled to
Pakistan, finding their way to England three years ago.
Wembley
primary school stands in an area of 1930s suburban sprawl, up the road from the
futuristic new national stadium. The borough is among Britain’s most ethnically
diverse communities.
How do
pupils cope? “Initially, it’s really hard for them,” says Mrs Talliard. “With
refugee children, you have to allow them periods of silence in a class. You want
to get them to jump through hoops and we have to get them through Sats. But you
can lose sight of the fact that this child is from Djibouti, say, and is
thinking ‘What the hell is all this about?’ You have to be patient.”
She says
some children take time to adjust to boisterous classmates, having been used to
a more traditional set-up.
The
diversity of the school’s staff helps, she says. Five of the 12 junior teachers
are from abroad. Mrs Talliard herself hails from Cape Town. And many of the
teaching assistants speak several languages. Sherri Parmar, who provides
one-to-one language support for Year 6, speaks five. And Wembley has access to a
translation service provided by the “fantastic” local authority.
The school
is proud of its cross-curricular work, led by the head Rob Fenton and curriculum
co-ordinator Susan Biggar. In the hall, aboriginal art and tributes to pupils’
heroes are the legacy of the recent Black History month.
When
The TES visited, pupils were cock-a-hoop from a trip the previous day to
Arsenal’s new home, the Emirates stadium. Mrs Talliard says it is hugely
rewarding and diverse, even compared with South Africa: “Back home, my mother is
fond of saying that we have 11 official languages. I say, that’s nothing. You should come to Brent.” (TES –
8.12.06) | 
