Bilingual Parent Support Advisors – BPSAs
Renaisi and Cambridge Education (CE) are pleased to announce the successful transfer of Islington based Bi-Lingual Parent Support Advisors (BPSAs) from Cambridge Education to Renaisi from 1st January 2012.
The BPSAs work to empower parents and children for whom English is not a first language to succeed – recognizing their culture and the contribution they can make to their neighbourhoods. It is currently delivered to fourteen schools in Islington and two in Westminster.
What does the service entail?
The BPSA service provides highly skilled staff who can speak Somali, Bengali, Turkish, Kurdish, Albanian or Spanish to support the achievement of pupils who speak English as an additional language. Our team works with London schools primarily to support parental involvement and engagement and to increase the achievement and well-being of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Team members are also available for short consultancies or to undertake short action-research projects to help local authorities and other agencies extend their reach to the Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Bengali, Albanian and Somali speaking communities.
What do schools need to do to help children and families for whom English is a second language?
- - Assess their own needs?in terms of their parental consultation, reporting, involvement, engagement, advice, support and feedback.
- - Ensure compliance with the requirements of the forthcoming Education Act and the new Ofsted Framework with regard to parental involvement and support
- - Understand their responsibilities in meeting the parental consultation and engagement aspects of their duty to promote Community Cohesion
- - Work towards having a staff team which reflects the diversity of the community it serves
- - Understand what pupil/ student attainment and achievement gaps exist and know the services available to help narrow these gaps
Key Benefits and Outcomes of using Bi-lingual Parent Support Advisers
- - Better communication between all parents and the school
- - Increased and more culturally inclusive parental involvement, engagement, advice and support
- - Attainment gaps narrowed or closed• Increased attendance and increased parental support for children’s education at home and at school
- - More culturally diverse pool of volunteers, e.g. as school governors
- - Wider range of black and minority ethnic mentors and role models
- - More ethnically and linguistically diverse staff group• School support to help more parents into training, and employment and out of poverty
- - Embedded conformity to both the letter and the spirit of current ?education and equalities legislation
- - More culturally inclusive curriculum and a more enriched and ?cohesive school community
What could the BPSA team offer to your school?
The BPSA’s role is to:
- - Ensure parents and pupils feel welcomed as part of the school community
- - Improve parents’ understanding of the English education system, enabling them to become more involved in their children’s education at school and at home.
- - Help schools develop systems that support parents in gaining a clearer understanding of school policies, practices and procedures
- - Help schools consult with parents, enabling parents to express their experiences, feelings, opinions and concerns to school staff.
- - Ensure parents are informed about and able to discuss their children’s progress and factors affecting their educational development
- - Translate essential information, engage in informal and formal interpretation and help parents and pupils celebrate and share their culture
- - Support student development through use of mother tongue and with regard to the universal, mutually reinforcing ambitions for every child and young person, whatever their background or circumstances, e.g. children and young people learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged; and the evidence shows clearly that educational achievement is the most effective route out of poverty.
- - Organise targeted out of school hours (including lunchtime) provision, in collaboration with other staff
- - Provide opportunities for training (including ESOL), as well as advice and support to prepare older students and parents for continuing education, volunteering or employment
- - Participate in the support of targeted pupils and liaise with parents, other teaching and support staff, and outside agencies to raise pupil’s achievement
- - Develop family learning opportunities for targeted groups of parents and their children
- - Develop links with partner agencies such as health and social care professionals, police and emergency services, voluntary groups such as mother tongue and supplementary schools, or disability support groups – to assist in focusing on the needs of particular families and communities
Placements are agreed on a term or annual basis. Pricing Prices for BPSA placements and for shorter periods and occasional days are available on request. Contact details
Rahma Samater
Manager Parental Involvement and Targeted Projects
T: 020 7033 2614
F: 020 7033 2631
Rob Pearce
Director
T: 020 7033 2615
M: 07884 312245
F: 020 7033 2631
Nicola Baboneau
Associate Director, Education
M: 07758 367343
