ABSTRACT
Chapter 12 Making sense of it all: using ICT to support older bilingual new arrivals S h eilag h C row ther w ith Ia n E yres
Sheilagh Crowther is a teacher working for Gloucestershire’s Ethnic Minorities Achievement Service, supporting children with English as an additional language in their own classrooms. She has developed special expertise in the use of ICT and in this chapter she describes how she, a class teacher and a teaching assistant worked together to use technology to help two Polish children play a full part in the life of their class while developing their English.
Two Polish ten-year-old twins, Bartek and Wyktoria arrived in their new Year 6 class in Tring Primary School at the end of September. All newly arrived children whatever their age or first language, need to feel welcome and they need to have their past achievements and experiences recognised. Bartek and Wyktoria had been confident, successful pupils in Poland and found a classroom environment in which they were unable to communicate easily with adults and children frustrating.
