Ethnic minorities and travellers
Here you will find information for traveller pupils and those pupils whose first language is not English.
Salford City Council provides a support service called Salford Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS), we work within Children's Services in Schools and Learning Development.
Two teams help children from different ethnic minority groups, in homes, early years settings, primary and high schools:
- Ethnic Minority Support Team
- Traveller Support Team
Children whose first language is not English
There are a number of children in Salford from ethnic minority backgrounds. Some need support and specialist teaching to help them to reach the educational level which other pupils of similar age and ability would be expected to achieve.
The ethnic minority support team provides support for the children of these families to ensure equal opportunities and to enable them to access the available educational provision - early years, primary and secondary.
The ethnic minority support team employs a number of teachers and bilingual assistants who work with pupils in schools to meet their language needs. Some of the languages they speak include: Arabic, Bengali Cantonise, Urdu, Lingala from Africa, French, German, Spanish, and Ukrainian.
Some of these children will be learning English as an additional language (EAL) having started their education in another country and some children will be bilingual. Salford EMTAS also supports a number of refugees and children from families seeking asylum.
Traveller children
The name 'Travellers' encompasses a number of different groups including gypsies, irish travellers, circus travellers, 'New' travellers and showman (fairground travellers) and housed traveller families. Most of these communities have a long tradition of a travelling lifestyle although their history and customs vary.
The Traveller Support Team provides support for the children of these families to ensure equal opportunities and to enable them to access the available educational provision - early years settings, primary and secondary.
The service consists of staff who work with children and their families in a variety of situations:
- Learning activities taking place on and off site
- Providing distance learning packs for traveller children
- Encouraging traveller families to go into higher and further education
- Supporting families with education, welfare and social issues.
What we do
- Our staff help school staff to provide the best education for all these children. We also help families and schools with translation and interpretation
- We work with other departments such as special educational needs, educational psychologists, education welfare officers housing, health and social services
- We help our families and schools to deal with racist incidents
- We find that most children we support want to feel safe and go to school to learn. They usually do well, learning English and other subjects
- We help Salford citizens and the families we support to understand and appreciate each others’ culture and way of life.
Other agencies we work with
We work with a number of other agencies such as:
- Health - G.P's and hospitals
- Health visitor for asylum seekers
- Housing
- Social services for asylum seekers
- Salford Community Safety Unit
- Connexions
- Irish Community Care
- Fairground and Circus Education Liaison Officers
If you would like any more information about these agencies, please contact us using the details given below.
Background Information
The following three documents contain extensive background information about the work EMTAS does:
More Information
For more information, please contact EMTAS on 0161 920 2202. Alternatively, you can email linda.corfield@salford.gov.uk or write to us at:
St Thomas of Canterbury RC Primary School
Hadfield Street
SALFORD
M7 4XG
Tel: 0161 921 2202
Fax: 0161 921 2211
This page was last updated on 31 October 2006
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