Theme: Partnering with parents: home and school links
Convenor/s: Berkshire and Hampshire RIG
How can we work with parents so that we learn more about our students’ language and cultural backgrounds, bringing these resources into the social and academic spheres in our schools? What are we doing to ensure that parents are well equipped in supporting their child(ren) being schooled in a new language and a new schooling system. How aligned are we in our messaging to parents about their child(ren)’s multilingualism?
In this interactive meeting, Susan Stewart will share how you might create a school community which was rooted in sound research in multilingualism and practice, and how the parents can, and should be, an integral part of this process.
Speaker: Susan Stewart
Susan Stewart has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and French from the University of South Africa, a PGCE from the University of Sunderland and an MA in Applied Linguistics and Communications from Birkbeck College, University of London. She has lived and worked in Thailand, the UAE, South Africa, Belgium, Oman, Sweden and the UK, and has raised two bilingual children. Susan speaks, to varying degrees, English, French, German, Afrikaans, Swedish and Arabic and is a lifelong learner of languages. Susan has a particular interest in the area of language policy as a driving force in promoting multilingualism within families, schools and on a national level. She is active in the local community in promoting the use of home languages, delivering regular parent workshops around the joys and challenges of raising multilingual children in monolingual environments.
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/susan-stewart-55064249