Shpresa

At our school, where 35% of our students speak English as an additional language, we value and celebrate the numerous first languages that are spoken at the school. We believe that this approach sends a powerful and positive message to students about their identity. One of these languages is Albanian.

Research proves that bilingual and multilingual students’ academic performance, as well as their cognitive and linguistic development, improves when they are actively encouraged to use their first languages on a regular basis. In brief, frequently using both their first language and English will increase students' chances of exam success. This is known as Balanced Bilingualism.

We have therefore organised for an outside agency - Shpresa Programme - to work with our Albanian-speaking students. Shpresa is a user-led organisation that promotes the participation and contribution of the Albanian-speaking community in the UK. It enables its users to play a positive and active role in society.

After discussions with our students, a representative from Shpresa has been delivering a weekly photography course which uses a mixture of both English and Albanian. The course is proving to be popular and successful and even included a recent weekend trip to the National Portrait Gallery. It will culminate in a display of the students' photographs; photographs that will focus on various aspects of Albanian and Kosovan culture.