Page 284 - Karmen Pižorn, Alja Lipavic Oštir in Janja Žmavc, ur. • Obrazi več-/raznojezičnosti. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2022. Digitalna knjižnica, Dissertationes 44
P. 284
2.2 Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní)’s increasingly diverse pupil cohort
Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní) belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Blanchards-
town. Until the mid-1990s, the school’s catchment area had an ageing pop-
ulation, so the school was able to admit a significant number of children
from Blanchardstown’s rapidly expanding hinterland where large num-
bers of immigrants settled. As the number of girls attending the school
increased, so too did the diversity of their linguistic and cultural back-
grounds. By 2003, 20 per cent of the school’s pupils came from immigrant
families, and this figure rose steadily over the next ten years until, in the
school year 2014–2015, 80 per cent of the pupils came from immigrant fam-
ilies. By this stage there were more than 50 home languages in the school.
Most pupils started at Scoil Bhríde aged 4½, but there were always a small
number of pupils who joined the school at a later stage, having arrived with
their parents from another country.
Scoil Bhríde’s EAL pupils represent multiple diversities. Some par-
ents come from communities in Africa and India where multilingualism
is widespread and fluid; others come from countries that identify one lan-
guage with the nation state. Some languages – e.g. Polish, Latvian and Lith-
uanian – are spoken by a minority of pupils at all levels of the school; oth-
ers are represented by just one family or a single pupil. Most pupils were
born in Ireland and had much the same pre-school experience as their Irish
peers, though it was filtered through a language other than English or Irish
and framed by a domestic culture imported from elsewhere; other pupils
immigrated to Ireland with their parents, having undergone primary so-
cialization and perhaps attended school in their country of origin. The ex-
tent to which immigrant families are in contact with other speakers of their
home language in Ireland is infinitely variable, as is the strength and fre-
quency of contact with their country of origin. Plurilingual families whose
repertoire includes a variety of English (for example, those from Nigeria)
often choose to speak English at home, so their children don’t acquire their
parents’ other language(s) of origin. Some immigrant communities organ-
ize weekend schools to support the development of literacy in their lan-
guage, though there is no guarantee that Scoil Bhríde’s pupils attend. Final-
ly, the socio-economic diversity of immigrant families is reflected in great
diversity of educational background, experience and achievement. Most
immigrant parents have received at least basic education in their language
of origin and can help their children to learn to read and write in their
home language. When parents are not functionally literate in their home
284
Scoil Bhríde (Cailíní) belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Blanchards-
town. Until the mid-1990s, the school’s catchment area had an ageing pop-
ulation, so the school was able to admit a significant number of children
from Blanchardstown’s rapidly expanding hinterland where large num-
bers of immigrants settled. As the number of girls attending the school
increased, so too did the diversity of their linguistic and cultural back-
grounds. By 2003, 20 per cent of the school’s pupils came from immigrant
families, and this figure rose steadily over the next ten years until, in the
school year 2014–2015, 80 per cent of the pupils came from immigrant fam-
ilies. By this stage there were more than 50 home languages in the school.
Most pupils started at Scoil Bhríde aged 4½, but there were always a small
number of pupils who joined the school at a later stage, having arrived with
their parents from another country.
Scoil Bhríde’s EAL pupils represent multiple diversities. Some par-
ents come from communities in Africa and India where multilingualism
is widespread and fluid; others come from countries that identify one lan-
guage with the nation state. Some languages – e.g. Polish, Latvian and Lith-
uanian – are spoken by a minority of pupils at all levels of the school; oth-
ers are represented by just one family or a single pupil. Most pupils were
born in Ireland and had much the same pre-school experience as their Irish
peers, though it was filtered through a language other than English or Irish
and framed by a domestic culture imported from elsewhere; other pupils
immigrated to Ireland with their parents, having undergone primary so-
cialization and perhaps attended school in their country of origin. The ex-
tent to which immigrant families are in contact with other speakers of their
home language in Ireland is infinitely variable, as is the strength and fre-
quency of contact with their country of origin. Plurilingual families whose
repertoire includes a variety of English (for example, those from Nigeria)
often choose to speak English at home, so their children don’t acquire their
parents’ other language(s) of origin. Some immigrant communities organ-
ize weekend schools to support the development of literacy in their lan-
guage, though there is no guarantee that Scoil Bhríde’s pupils attend. Final-
ly, the socio-economic diversity of immigrant families is reflected in great
diversity of educational background, experience and achievement. Most
immigrant parents have received at least basic education in their language
of origin and can help their children to learn to read and write in their
home language. When parents are not functionally literate in their home
284
