[eal-bilingual] Attendance leaflet

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Hi, John - it wasn't me, it was Ruth with the translated attendance
leaflet (I haven't put together my version, yet).  I've checked the
document she sent me, though, and it doesn't have Polish on it.

Alison

-----Original Message-----
From: eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:eal-bilingual-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of jlassa
Sent: 09 May 2008 11:06
To: eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [eal-bilingual] Attendance leaflet

Dear Alison

Do you have your recently translated leaflet in the Polish language?

Regards

John Lassa

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <eal-bilingual-request at lists.becta.org.uk>
To: <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 12:00 PM
Subject: eal-bilingual Digest, Vol 56, Issue 7

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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. To all those who joined in my discussion... (Alison Mott)
>   2. And now another favour (Alison Mott)
>   3. Attendance leaflet (RUTH DELVIN)
>   4. CANCEL (Eileen MacDonald-Williams)
>   5. Re: Attendance leaflet (Prakash Ross)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 21:12:31 +0100
> From: "Alison Mott" <ash-mott at tiscali.co.uk>
> Subject: [eal-bilingual] To all those who joined in my discussion...
> To: "'For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic
> andlinguistic minorities'" <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <000401c8afb5$83dc3f90$4001a8c0 at della47ad9780d>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Many thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas on how you work/how
you
> feel school based EMASS staff can work most effectively.  I've
> amalgamated everyone's ideas with a few which were already brewing in
my
> head and have a healthy looking draft action plan to share with the
> management team at school.  I also feel much more reassured that a
good
> proportion of the things I'm already doing are right and just need
> tweaking a bit to make my working week more manageable.  So thanks
again
> for your help in 're-enervating' a colleague who was beginning to
flag!
>
> Alison
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 21:48:29 +0100
> From: "Alison Mott" <ash-mott at tiscali.co.uk>
> Subject: [eal-bilingual] And now another favour
> To: "'For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic
> andlinguistic minorities'" <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <000001c8afba$8a6853d0$4001a8c0 at della47ad9780d>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> In a meeting at school today we discussed intervention programmes and
> the fact that the larger majority of children taking part in catch-up
> activities are the same children and are those with regular, poor
> attendance.  This then lead to a discussion about attendance
altogether
> (our school is failing to hit Government targets) and on to the pros
and
> cons of children going on extended leave (cons in the opinion of most
> taking part in the discussion; there are benefits relating to improved
> home language, sense of connection and self esteem in my opinion).
Our
> headteacher has tried the coaxing route and the threatening route to
try
> to get parents not to take their children from school during term
time,
> with little lasting impact (though for the most part parents are now
> better at planning these holidays around longer school breaks).  We
also
> had a quick look at the 'official' and extremely wordy letter which
the
> head sends out to parents to point out the negative effects of taking
> their child out of school.
>
> With regard to regular poor attendance, one classteacher stated they
had
> begun to tell parents that if they want their children to get good
exam
> results and go on to get good jobs, they need to bring them to school
on
> time so they don't fall.  They had had some, limited, success with
this.
> Another teacher had commonly heard it expressed in the community that
> primary school wasn't really important and that it was secondary
school
> and GCSE's that count.  They felt this impacted on the lack of
parental
> pressure/sense of urgency in making reluctant children come to school.
>
> We also shared anecdotal evidence of children talking about how late
> they go to bed.
>
> So, my favour: I offered to:
>
> * re-word the formal extended leave letter to make it parent
> friendly;
>
> * produce a leaflet about the problems caused by children
> regularly being late and/or missing school (particularly to raise
> awareness of the impact falling behind in primary school will have on
a
> child's secondary career)
>
> * source information/leaflets on the benefits of children going to
> bed at a decent time
>
> * and get all the above translated into the languages spoken in
> our school (predominantly Bengali, then Arabic).
>
> But thought I'd check first to see if anyone had already produced
> anything along those lines?
>
> Alison
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 01:17:52 +0100 (BST)
> From: RUTH DELVIN <ruth.delvin at btopenworld.com>
> Subject: [eal-bilingual] Attendance leaflet
> To: For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic and
> linguistic minorities <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <340037.24610.qm at web86210.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Dear Alison
>  Am forwarding you separately our recently translated leaflet on 
> attendance and punctuality in Bengali/Somali/Spanish/Turkish/English.
You 
> will need to have downloaded Banglaword or have another Bengali font
on 
> your machine to access the Bengali sections.  Really think
translations of 
> this magnitude should be undertaken by central government rather than 
> individual schools or LAs.
>  However much good it may do children to water their cultural roots
during 
> school time, there are obvious disadvantages. Of course parents have
valid 
> reasons for taking children out of school - low season air fares, 
> weddings, funerals and harvesting - but on the other hand they do need
to 
> realise that they are liable to prosecution and substantial fines if
they 
> take their children out of school without consent.  This is by far the

> most persuasive argument.
>
>  Being on time and attending regularly is, after all, part of
accepting 
> responsibility for one's own progress.
>
>  Regards
>  Ruth Delvin
>  Highbury Grove School
>  N52EG
>
>
>
> Alison Mott <ash-mott at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
>  In a meeting at school today we discussed intervention programmes and
> the fact that the larger majority of children taking part in catch-up
> activities are the same children and are those with regular, poor
> attendance. This then lead to a discussion about attendance altogether
> (our school is failing to hit Government targets) and on to the pros
and
> cons of children going on extended leave (cons in the opinion of most
> taking part in the discussion; there are benefits relating to improved
> home language, sense of connection and self esteem in my opinion). Our
> headteacher has tried the coaxing route and the threatening route to
try
> to get parents not to take their children from school during term
time,
> with little lasting impact (though for the most part parents are now
> better at planning these holidays around longer school breaks). We
also
> had a quick look at the 'official' and extremely wordy letter which
the
> head sends out to parents to point out the negative effects of taking
> their child out of school.
>
> With regard to regular poor attendance, one classteacher stated they
had
> begun to tell parents that if they want their children to get good
exam
> results and go on to get good jobs, they need to bring them to school
on
> time so they don't fall. They had had some, limited, success with
this.
> Another teacher had commonly heard it expressed in the community that
> primary school wasn't really important and that it was secondary
school
> and GCSE's that count. They felt this impacted on the lack of parental
> pressure/sense of urgency in making reluctant children come to school.
>
> We also shared anecdotal evidence of children talking about how late
> they go to bed.
>
> So, my favour: I offered to:
>
> * re-word the formal extended leave letter to make it parent
> friendly;
>
> * produce a leaflet about the problems caused by children
> regularly being late and/or missing school (particularly to raise
> awareness of the impact falling behind in primary school will have on
a
> child's secondary career)
>
> * source information/leaflets on the benefits of children going to
> bed at a decent time
>
> * and get all the above translated into the languages spoken in
> our school (predominantly Bengali, then Arabic).
>
> But thought I'd check first to see if anyone had already produced
> anything along those lines?
>
> Alison
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 08:04:17 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Eileen MacDonald-Williams <emacdwilliams at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: [eal-bilingual] CANCEL
> To: eal bilingual <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <562561.55319.qm at web26001.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Would you please cancel my subscription and delete my name from
receiving 
> any further emails.
> Thank you
> Eileen MacDonald-Williams
>
>
>      __________________________________________________________
> Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
> A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 10:35:06 +0100 (BST)
> From: Prakash Ross <ramaeducation at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [eal-bilingual] Attendance leaflet
> To: For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic and
> linguistic minorities <eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <866468.80923.qm at web23315.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hi Alison
> Letters and other correspondence are important in making connections
with 
> parents, but often they are not successful because of literacy issues
of 
> the parents and sometimes parents lack of knowledge or understanding
of 
> the way in which the British education system operates.
> I've found that going to the local community centres and the mosque to

> talk about achievement in general including attendance is useful. Also

> inviting mothers into the school for activities.  Using someone who
has 
> some social standing within the community to support the school in
working 
> with these families is very helpful
> The bengali community has a rich cultural heritage with Tagore as one
of 
> their greatest poets and philosophers and it may be that some of his
work 
> could be used within the curriculum.
>
> I've been involved for a long time with Bengali communities. Most
families 
> really value education and will listen to the arguments for not taking

> their children on extended holidays in term-time.  With sustained
effort, 
> and using a variety of approaches, the attendance levels of
Bangladeshi 
> pupils rose in our schools
> Best wishes
>
> Prakash Ross
>
>
> RUTH DELVIN <ruth.delvin at btopenworld.com> wrote: Dear Alison
>  Am forwarding you separately our recently translated leaflet on 
> attendance and punctuality in Bengali/Somali/Spanish/Turkish/English.
You 
> will need to have downloaded Banglaword or have another Bengali font
on 
> your machine to access the Bengali sections.  Really think
translations of 
> this magnitude should be undertaken by central government rather than 
> individual schools or LAs.
>  However much good it may do children to water their cultural roots
during 
> school time, there are obvious disadvantages. Of course parents have
valid 
> reasons for taking children out of school - low season air fares, 
> weddings, funerals and harvesting - but on the other hand they do need
to 
> realise that they are liable to prosecution and substantial fines if
they 
> take their children out of school without consent.  This is by far the

> most persuasive argument.
>
>  Being on time and attending regularly is, after all, part of
accepting 
> responsibility for one's own progress.
>
>  Regards
>  Ruth Delvin
>  Highbury Grove School
>  N52EG
>
>
>
> Alison Mott  wrote:
>  In a meeting at school today we discussed intervention programmes and
> the fact that the larger majority of children taking part in catch-up
> activities are the same children and are those with regular, poor
> attendance. This then lead to a discussion about attendance altogether
> (our school is failing to hit Government targets) and on to the pros
and
> cons of children going on extended leave (cons in the opinion of most
> taking part in the discussion; there are benefits relating to improved
> home language, sense of connection and self esteem in my opinion). Our
> headteacher has tried the coaxing route and the threatening route to
try
> to get parents not to take their children from school during term
time,
> with little lasting impact (though for the most part parents are now
> better at planning these holidays around longer school breaks). We
also
> had a quick look at the 'official' and extremely wordy letter which
the
> head sends out to parents to point out the negative effects of taking
> their child out of school.
>
> With regard to regular poor attendance, one classteacher stated they
had
> begun to tell parents that if they want their children to get good
exam
> results and go on to get good jobs, they need to bring them to school
on
> time so they don't fall. They had had some, limited, success with
this.
> Another teacher had commonly heard it expressed in the community that
> primary school wasn't really important and that it was secondary
school
> and GCSE's that count. They felt this impacted on the lack of parental
> pressure/sense of urgency in making reluctant children come to school.
>
> We also shared anecdotal evidence of children talking about how late
> they go to bed.
>
> So, my favour: I offered to:
>
> * re-word the formal extended leave letter to make it parent
> friendly;
>
> * produce a leaflet about the problems caused by children
> regularly being late and/or missing school (particularly to raise
> awareness of the impact falling behind in primary school will have on
a
> child's secondary career)
>
> * source information/leaflets on the benefits of children going to
> bed at a decent time
>
> * and get all the above translated into the languages spoken in
> our school (predominantly Bengali, then Arabic).
>
> But thought I'd check first to see if anyone had already produced
> anything along those lines?
>
> Alison
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
> A Smarter Email.
>
> End of eal-bilingual Digest, Vol 56, Issue 7
> ********************************************
>
> 