These wonderful language displays are courtesy of Joe Debono and his school Newbury Primary in Ilford, Redbridge in London.

There are over 40 languages spoken in the school and Language of the Month was introduced to help the children to learn a little about and share each other’s languages.

As well as displays the initiative includes online audio visual resources and specially designed simple games.

I think the initiative is fantastic and it will give a real sense of validation and respect to children and their families for whom English is not their first language.

Online Resources and Downloads

The school hasn’t stopped there though. They’ve made all these resources freely available via their web site. You can hear children speaking simple words in their own languages, download the activity booklet which has suggestions for over a 100 games and other pdf files to help you put up your own language of the month displays.

I’m going to use it myself to try to master a few simple words from languages I might encounter amongst my students next year. How about you?

seaside display, originally uploaded by LindaH.

This seaside display was made by a family learning class with help from the learning mentor. The children were all under four and attend the school nursery.
I am sure that displays like this are helpful in several ways:

• Making the display provides a shape and purpose for the family learning sessions
• The work gives lots of opportunities for speaking and listening skills to be practised
• Encourages a sense of pride and achievement.
• It promotes a sense of ownership in both the parents and the children

There are more, I’m sure. Seeing this I couldn’t help but think how much better it was than having the sort of Disney cartoon murals you sometimes see in nurseries and creches.

Practical Tips

To re-create this display
The starfish - breakfast cereal or pasta

The crab - folded paper plate, card and googly eyes

The hot air balloon- assorted collage items glued onto card then covered with cellophane, probably stapled.

Andrea from Interim Reports has been to Cathkin Community Nursery this week. She says:

Loved the good news tree, which grows bigger throughout the session - different types of good news - little people who might have managed to sleep in their own bed the whole night, maybe they’ve got a new brother or sister. Huge opportunities for self expression, talking and listening, psd etc etc….

Liz Mercer the Head of the establishment her Depute and staff are inspiring and have a very welcoming ethos and love to share their ideas.

I just love this display! It could be adapted to be used in any school. Wouldn’t it be great to have a huge one in a school entrance or hall?

Sunflower display, originally uploaded by LindaH.

I’m going to do a series of posts highlighting classroom displays for spring over the next week or so. I love this cheery display, it’s an ideal spring display and could be adapted in a number of ways to include class work if used in an older classroom.

All the things on this display were been made by children (oldest is age 4) and their parents. The families worked with the school learning mentors as part of the family learning initiative.

The butterflies and bees can be seen in more detail here:

Julie, a learning mentor said:

The butterflies proved rather addictive and were great fun to make . Originally the learning mentors made them for a craft stall at the school fair.

The butterflies were made from clothes pegs and tissue paper squares. Bee wings were made by drawing round children’s feet on wax paper.

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