pre-primary education

primary education

secondary education

 Skol Veythrin Karenza

Contact person

Emilie Champliaud

Address

Cornwall College Camborne campus site, Trevenson Road, Pool

Postal Code

TR15 3RD

Town

Redruth

Telephone number

01209 319 912

Country

Cornwall, Great Britain

E-mail

emilie.champliaud(a)movyans-skolyow-meythrin.net 

Website

www.movyans-skolyow-meythrin.net

Total number of teachers

2 (+ 2 Teaching Assistants)

Total number of pupils

10

Minority language(s) in your region

Cornish

Languages taught as a subject in your school

Cornish

Languages of instruction

Cornish and English

In case of different languages of instruction, what is the division between them (e.g. in percentages or hours per week):

Cornish 50% - English 50%, although the Cornish language is used more and more as the children learn it.

Languages used outside formal lessons (in the school yard etc)

Cornish and English

Skills trained in the minority language (multiple options possible)

• Reading
• Listening
• Speaking
• Mediation (= all sorts of communication in which a language user acts as an intermediate, e.g. translation, paraphrase, summary)

What is your opinion of the availability of teaching material in/of the minority language?

Bad

Please explain

very few teaching material available for this age group

What is your opinion of the quality of teaching material in/of the minority language?

Bad

Please explain

most of the teaching material we can get hold of is either outdated or not adequate

Who develops the teaching material used in your school (multiple options possible)?

• teachers in the school or colleagues
• translations or adaptations from other languages
• publishing houses

If possible, please provide more detailed information about teaching materials, e.g. websites

www.movyans-skolyow-meythrin.net
www.magakernow.org.uk
www.cornish-language.org

Please provide a brief description of projects concerning multilingualism in your school in the past and the present

The whole school is a multilingual project in itself. From here we try to develop micro projects such as excursions to places of heritage and/or importance for the children, festivals, local businesses etc. We are also trying to create our own resources and familiarise children with the Cornish language, the Cornish culture as a whole (music, cooking, dance, theatre, story-telling etc.) and other languages and culture. For instance some of the children attending the school are bilingual (e.g. French-English) and we try to make the children aware of the wealth of difference amongst people that they will encounter throughout their lives.

Does your school have any contacts with (another) school(s) abroad? If so, please describe the kind of contact or activities

• Mooinjer Veggey (Manx preschools movement) – research trip and visit; sharing ideas and good practice,
• Diwan (Breton preschools movement) – sharing ideas and good practice, project of an exchange visit,
• Prifysgol Cymru (Welsh preschools movement) – project of an exchange visit,
• Ikastolen Elkartea (Basque Europen Cooperative of schools) – cooperation and exchange visit in project

Main problem regarding minority language education

• Lack of interest and awareness among families with young children,
• Lack of volunteers who are fluent in Cornish and are interested in volunteering with young children,
• Lack of adequate resources,
• Lack of Early Years Practitioners who are fluent and/or interested in becoming fluent in the Cornish language,
• Lack of funding.

Possible solutions

• Wider awareness campaign,
• Create our own resources,
• Increase the opportunities to learn the language and become proficient, increase the incentives of learning the language,
• Get sponsors from the private sector.

Which are themes in the field of minority language education/multilingual education which you would like to address in joint (European) projects with other schools?

• Teacher training opportunities in bilingual/multilingual settings,
• Creation of resources for Early Years education,
• Involving and raising awareness of the benefits of a bilingual/multilingual education among families with young children