St Swithun Wells Catholic Primary School receive gold award

‘Young interpreters’ at St Swithun Wells Catholic Primary School support children and families with English as an additional language.

The scheme, created over 10 years ago, sees pupils help their peers with their learning.

The school was recently awarded a gold award Award from Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS).

This is something both teachers and pupils are exceptionally proud of.

Headteacher Anne-Marie Jordan said: “"We are very proud of our community and how welcoming our children are to others.

“Our young interpreters do an amazing job and all our children make great progress during their time here.”

She added: “We are very proud of our multi-cultural community.

“Some of our young interpreters started off as children who needed the support themselves when they joined the school and have now moved on to become a young interpreter.

“We are very proud and very excited to have been awarded gold.”

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Only nine schools in Hampshire have been awarded this accolade, with St Swithun the only school in the Eastleigh borough with the title.

For the pupils, it’s about making their peers feel ‘feel welcome and happy so they don’t feel alone.’

One young interpreter said: “I get to meet people from different countries and I think that’s an amazing thing to do.

“And I would like to inspire more people to become a young interpreter.”

Another added: “We have been reading stories to the children that are shy or can’t speak the language.

“And we have been using puppets to read with the stories.”

Hampshire inspectors met with staff, children and governors and were delighted to see the language and cultural diversity amongst staff members and children.

They were ‘exceptionally impressed’ with how well linguistic diversity and culture are visibly celebrated throughout the school and school life.