Using heritage languages at school

Mount Pleasant Junior School nurtures a multilingual environment in all sorts of ways, some of which the children talk about here. They tell us about their Bibliotheca before sharing their perspectives on reading and writing in different languages.

Reenaz explains that some pupils help support their peers in the classroom. The school encourages classroom settings that are ‘talk-rich’ and teachers find opportunities to pair same-language learners together when introducing new concepts. You’ll find out how to put these ideas into practice in the classroom in a later Step, but in the meantime you may be interested to learn more about the Young Interpreters’ Scheme, a school-friendly programme that supports teachers in training pupils to act as interpreters for new arrivals who are multilingual.

What’s your response to the way the children talk about their school in this video? How do you think the initiatives the school has taken might help to promote their engagement with learning, their social development and wellbeing?