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Banff schools face increasing ESL needs

The increasing number of temporary foreign workers and landed immigrants living in Banff with their families is putting local schools in a new situation.

The increasing number of temporary foreign workers and landed immigrants living in Banff with their families is putting local schools in a new situation.

Banff Elementary School and Banff High School have seen significant increases in students needing English as a second language (ESL) and English language learning (ELL) instruction and support in the schools.

Principals Dean Irvine (BES), Steve Greene (BHS) and assistant superintendent Kate Belford were in front of Canadian Rockies Public Schools board of trustees last week to provide an update on the situation.

Belford said during the 2006-07 school year the total number of ESL and ELL students in the division was 35. This school year, however, there are 161 ESL and ELL students and 142 of those are in Banff schools. That is a 460 per cent increase in seven years.

“That is making up pretty well 30 per cent of our student population in schools now,” Belford said specifically about Banff. “That is huge and it has been steadily growing.”

Last year, the division hired a full-time support worker to support the ESL and ELL students. That includes instruction and working with teachers, but also assessment and intake processes when students arrive in the valley.

Belford said the position works with settlement services locally and it typically takes two hours to initially assess new students and meet their parents at the school. Last year, the position assessed 78 students at schools throughout the district.

On top of that, added Irvine, the full-time position must assess students coded as ESL or ELL once a year to determine their progress in language skills.

“The process is extensive and when you start to break it down it is a fair chunk of time,” he said.

Alberta Education provides $1,200 per ESL or ELL student for five years, which is where the funding for the full-time position comes from.

Belford explained part of the challenge is the families and students don’t have an understanding of the philosophy of education being used in Canada and are “not necessarily coming with the critical skills we are looking for.”

That means their expectation is rote learning, or memorization and repetition, as opposed to the critical thinking and whole child philosophy CRPS has championed.

In addition to that, according to local survey results provided by settlement services, ESL and ELL students and parents are uncomfortable asking for help or questioning the school system, which in their home countries is often deferred to as the authority.

Irvine said calls home from the school can also be perceived as a negative, while survey results showed parents felt too many emails are sent home and there is too much of a reliance on technology.

Greene said there is no way to predict the numbers from year to year, but “they just keep going up.”

Students arriving at the high school level are also presenting an additional challenge, he added, to provide them the language skills needed to be successful and graduate. This year, he said, the ESL position has started to pull students out of classes regularly for direct instruction during a set time together.

“It is a completely different world they are learning in,” Greene said. “It is a cultural shift they are working through and we are trying to get ahead of that.

“We are working our best within the scenarios in place to support students and looking at different ways to do that – it is something that is front and centre for us.”

Belford said an ESL and ELL advisory group has been established, not just for the schools, but a broader community conversation.


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