A Glasgow primary school at which none of the pupils speak English as their first language and few have ever been to school has launched a fundraising appeal to help them learn and integrate.
Most pupils at Annette Street primary, in Govanhill, come from eastern Europe, including a large number of Roma from Romania and Slovakia.
Pupils whose parents have come to Scotland seeking work often arrive without ever having experienced school before and cannot speak any English.
The school is trying to raise £5,000 to buy books and games to improve the children’s English.
Shirley Taylor, head teacher at Annette Street, has posted a video appeal on YouTube, setting out the impact of poverty on the lives of pupils.
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She says that Roma have been “persecuted, discriminated against, and made to live on the margins of society, in ghettoes with the poorest standards of housing and the poorest of opportunities for education and employment.
“Therefore, many of our children come to us with little or no experience of going to school, and unable to speak English.
“Imagine this,” Ms Taylor says. “You are a child of nine or ten. You have never been to school before and suddenly you are thrust into a classroom where you don’t know anyone, where school routines are alien and confusing to you, and all day long you are trying to learn and make sense of what is going on in a language you don’t understand.”
Govanhill is home to a large number of recent migrants, 181 of the 222 pupils at Annette Street come from eastern Europe.
The remaining pupils are believed to be of south Asian origin.
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While many schools could rely on a parents’ association to raise funds for extra materials, Ms Taylor says that “the parents and the children in my school just don’t have the linguistic or financial capacity to do this.”
As well as the language barrier, in the video, Ms Taylor reveals that pupils arriving at school “may be hungry because there was no money to buy breakfast or tired because they have interrupted sleep from having to share a bed with three other siblings, or maybe they can’t concentrate due to terrible toothache, because they and their family have never had access to dental care.”
Despite the huge difficulties, Ms Taylor says pupils at Annette Street are “resilient, friendly, warm and courageous children who love their school” and are “little sponges” when it comes to learning English.
Among the items on the school’s wish list are board games for £10 each, to help pupils practice English in social situations, and £100 to fund an after-school club where children and their parents can practice language skills together.
The school also hopes to put £200 towards a trip to the seaside so that recently arrived pupils can explore their new home.
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A spokeswoman for Glasgow city council said: “The diversity and many cultures in our classrooms across the city make Glasgow the wonderful city that we have become known for.
“Our children and young people can all learn from each other.”