Child
When a new culturally and/or linguistically diverse child joins your school and classroom, several key areas are worth considering.
Firstly, it is important to get to know the child as well as possible. This includes not only gathering information from parents’ or child’s perspective but also from interactions that the child has with others (both adults and peers) as well as from the child’s observation.
Secondly, it is important to gather as much information as possible about the child’s current and past situation. We want to find out how they are adapting into a new schooling situation, what are the needs to be met, what forms of support were used in the past and what forms of support can be used in future to help the child to adapt to the new culture and schooling situation.
Finally, there is an important question to address: to which class level should the new child be assigned to? Should it be the same as in the country of origin or (if there are differences between countries) as in the welcoming country? This issue needs to be thoroughly considered.