Internet Safety Day

Internet Safety Day Poster

Today is Internet Safety Day to support you we have uploaded posters into the resource library, in the following languages Albanian, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, German, Latvian, Gujarati, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Russian, Slovak, Polish, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

Here is the Italian poster which can be found in the Resource library under either the language are alternatively by subject, choose ICT or PSHE and then look for Web safety poster.

Be Web Safe – Italian

Have  a great day and BE SAFE.

Resource library available at £129.00 for 1 years membership contact us in the usual by by phone 0845 009 4939 or email us at info@emasuk.com.

January EMASUK Resource Library – Update

In January we uploaded:

Design Technology and Art resources render the shapes in Albanian, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Spanish.

Bee and bee hive poster for Science teachers in Albanian, French, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese Cantonese and mandarin, Czech, Dutch, English, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Kurdish, Nepali, Romanian, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu and Welsh.

A Slovak maths book which is available to all new members.

A guide for teachers on how to use snap cards to pre-teach vocabulary and the e-zine Toucan Jan 2014.

Continuing the life cycle of a frog resources for science teachers, a tadpole poster in Albanian, Bengali, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

http://youtu.be/frQVKGaMQSM Frog Video

Heart and circulation posters for PE and Science in Albanian, Arabic, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Dutch

Poster – instructions – with a sign for cutting out – Arabic, Bengali, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish and English.

For safeguarding, ICT and PSHE web safety posters in Albanian, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, German, Latvian, Gujarati, Hungarian, Italian, Kurdish, Russian, Slovak, Polish, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

Safer Internet Day 2014 will be celebrated on 11 February 2014 – http://www.saferinternet.org/safer-internet-day

 

My child’s amazing bilingual abilities and skills are not valued, used or developed in English-only school

This was piece recently that I read in the Guardian what do you think?

My child’s amazing bilingual abilities and skills are not valued, used or developed in his English-only school.”

The Government can point to a growth in the number of bilingual primary schools as a result of its free school programme – there are French, German and Spanish schools in operation.

In addition, it is making languages compulsory from the age of seven in state primary schools for the first time ever from next September.

However, such actions are too little, Ms Gavrilova feels. “Our children are set to grow up in a world where their sense of normality is very different from ours,” says the brochure outlining its plans. “Their ability to adapt and adjust will be the difference between success and failure.

“It’s why the behemoth of the British education system is increasingly not the answer to our children’s needs.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teaching-in-tongues-the-bilingual-preschool-tapping-new-potential-9032047.html

But what do you think?

I think schools delivering bilingual opportunities are valuing their learners and parents culture.  It from the first language that the second language is learnt and developed. It is only done much quicker than the traditional methods used as the young people brains are wired differently so they can translate easier and quicker across language using the technologies available to them to support their language acquisition. But what are your views?

If you would like more information on the tools and resources we have available to make your job easier when communicating with children or parents then contact us at www.emasuk.com or info@emasuk.com 0845 009 4939 Thanks Liz

Using Bilingual books can support children with one English spekaing parent.

September seems a long way away and teachers have not even started their holidays yet.  Many will be planning vigorously for their September classes just before going for a well earned break. One thing that should be on their minds especially if they know of new arrivals to their classes the language of learning their children have experienced prior to arriving in their classroom.

For myself this story struck  chord with me

On a sunny day in London, when the streets are crowded with people enjoying the rare warmth, you can hear an abundance of different languages from the majority migrant groups in the city: families discussing the school day in Somali; teenagers gossiping in Turkish; imams greeting each other in Urdu.   But passing by the shop fronts boasting posters in languages from Polish and Bengali, you won’t hear German or Cape Verdean creole – not unless you go to Andrea and Xaxa’s for tea and cake.http://blog.languagelizard.com/2013/04/15/bringing-up-multilingual-children-with-less-common-home-languages/

The reason being that  few years ago, I was not only planning for my new classes but also my daughters when moving from Wales to London.  What disappointed me the most was that although I thought about my new classes language of prior learning, the teachers at my daughters school did not reciprocate. Up until this time she has been taught her academic learning in Welsh so although verbally adept in English her academic language did not match. What did make me cross was that I worked very hard at the end of my first year creating and supporting the creation of resources via the Local Authority for my classes in Greek, Turkish, Bengali and Urdu but nothing was ever created to support her.  In parent discussions when asked about how they are helping they could tell you how to help others similar to the stories above but as this was readily available and to hand they never went the extra mile to support those other pupils with English as their second or third language.

In an effort to support as many languages as possible and because of the sheer wrench it can be to move house within a village, without from Wales to England or indeed from any other country in the world we asked Shoofly to support us in creating  book about feelings and loss.  The book is called Pip and can be used with parents particularly if only one parent speaks English as it will have the text in English plus e.g. German.  To support teachers and the pupils further in a PSHE role with it is a great software programme that allows you to put Pip into a story, recreate a story or create your own story. using your own words and pictures or from the dedicated library of images and words.

If you would like to support these children each book is £20.00 but via this blog on offer until 1st September for only  £15.00 per book (excluding p and p)  and is currently available in the following:

picture format only, English, Polish, Albanian, Chinese Mandarin, Czech, Dutch, Russian, French, German, Nepali, Kurdish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Hebrew, Latvian, Cantonese, Romanian, Somali and Lithuanian.

Pip Story Creator – £100. http://shop.emasuk.com/site_content/site_emasuk/resources/pip-order.pdf for bulk orders.

 

Quote Blog to receive your discount to either info@emasuk.com or in person to 0845 0094939.

Give all of your children a chance.

 

 

 

 

Outdated strategies leaves people unsupported

I continue to read with sadness the recent reports about the courts and translation services. See the latest story at  http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/news/interpreters-and-als-report/ what is sad to me is that there are too many people needing translators in court, yet the people making the decisions still use outdated strategies to fulfil a need that there are not the resources for.  Instead of looking at alternatives to lighten loads e.g. our Text system will alleviate some of the time needed to translate text in over 50 languages they continue to use too few people, to do too large a job.

With clever management and clear process it would be possible for the judicial service to see where our Talking system would help. By giving officials another tool to use in difficult times, for example where a conversation needs to happen but the languages of the two people are not similar, we can help alleviate stress and uncertainty. A classic example is when the person is first brought to custody, rather than waiting hours for an interpreter, use our text or talking system to converse with the person.  Gain valuable information quickly and then move on swiftly to the next level.  At interview before the need of a translator use Two Can Talk or Claire Talk with their unique bespoke system that allows you to keep a copy of the conversation via PDF.  For those on the move I Can Talk to provides the support needed to converse with the client.

As the world changes and people move around from country to country then this will continue to be an issue, so SMART targets and out of the box thinking will support everyone involved in conversations with others.

The same can be said in the Health Service where the hospital needs to gain patient information ClaireTalk is proving invaluable and helping the hospitals using it to save money without loss of service.

It reminds me of years previously when John suggested that it would be a good idea for all teachers to have laptops.  Many disagreed and argued against this, but twenty years on the same teachers, officials and parents would be arguing if you tried to take them away. I think this is probably the same and predict that in time we will all be mixing bespoke statistical Machine Translation Services and people with language skills as tools to get the job done, much the same as we do now with pencils, ICT personnel and laptops or tablets.

 

Safeguarding vulnerable children – focussing on EAL and new arrivals

Safeguarding is a huge issue that needs to be tackled with care but how can you do this when you cannot speak directly to the child or parents? Members of EMASUK  have access to the tools to deliver this efficiently and securely, so this post discusses the commissioners finding and shows where the tools you have available supports the initiative.

In relation to safeguarding one tool allows you not only to have a conversation but also record the conversation via PDF. Two Can Talk allows the conversationalists to type in their information and have it spoken aloud in another language. The intimacy of the programme which allows two people of different language bases to speak and discuss together means the child feels supported and listened to. In addition the teacher/nurse/officer can read all the body language that accompanies the conversation to make a real judgment on the case.The addition of the ability to put in who the conversationalists were makes it possible for the first time to keep a record for further use which is a real must for safeguarding discussions. In practice this was brought home last year when one school was able to use Two Can Talk to find out that the child had a nut alergy so were able to divert a possible life threatening situation.

The same tool can be used in hospitals and in police stations where children also have difficult conversations, but again they can be reassured that they are being listened to and understood, as is the recording of the information, the child may only have the courage to say it once, so we must do our best to make this simple and easy for everyone concerned.

The Childrens Commissioner Dr Maggie Atkinson has this week detailed some good examples of how to support safeguarding in schools via her top ten tips.  Below are some highlighted areas that relate exactly to the group of children and parents that we are supporting in the UK schools and the community i.e. those whose first language is not English and new arrivals.

How will good practice help safeguarding in everyday school life. p5 of the report.

One of the areas highlighted is the ability for the child to be listened to, and also good relationships with parents, again this is really difficult if you yourself do not speak Arabic, Russian, Bengali etc, but you can start that process if you are using Text Tutor effectively.  Text Tutor has all these and more languages and by using the simple cut and paste method you can create what ever letter, news information, safeguarding leaflet that you need personalised for your institution.

The commissioner targets ten areas with one of these being  ‘How do you engage with parents and carers’. The commissioner states that parents should be aware of the safeguarding policies and how schools plan to fulfil their responsibilities. She suggests that good schools  have approachable staff and good communication. One school which I have seen in action is Tennyson Road School in Luton, they really have the child at the centre of their processes including one person with the role as a parent support worker. The use of this type of support is recognised by the childrens commissioner as really good practice because of their knowledge of the school but also the wider community. To support this further by using the hand held translator I Can Talk To it allows officers, teachers and support workers a more portable device where there is no computer access, but still allows parental engagement. See it working here http://icantalkto.co.uk/

The value of Parent support workers for the school, the child and the local community.

Disclosure is often something that people are unprepared for, but again the use of two can talk can help the conversation take place and record it. I have experienced this once and with a child who spoke my language and this was really difficult for both of us, but imagine if the child did not speak the same language, it makes it even more difficult but as the commissioners says these children have a right to be heard, so at EMASUK we believe it is our job to make that as painless and easy as possible.

EAL and disclosure examples of good practice.

In conclusion using the variety of communication tools available it is possible to support these children and also be ragarded as a good school in realtion to safeguarding whether at school, hospital, police station or the local council office, but more importantly be regarded by the child as soem one they can put their trust in to have their most difficult conversation with.

You can download or read the tips by the Commissioner here http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_627

For further information email info@emasuk.com