Newly arrived children to the UK - Information for parents

Welcome

Coventry's Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS) helps families who arrive in the city from overseas.

This is how we can help you and your family

Our Access to Education Team will help you find a school place for your children, contact details below.

When you phone us we will ask you these questions:

• What is your family name?
• What is your address in Coventry?
• What is your contact telephone number?
• What are the names of the children who need school places?
• What language or languages do you and your children speak?
• Is there anyone in your family who can speak English? 

Once you have answered these questions, an Access to Education Officer will call you and make an appointment to complete an application for a school place 

For this call, make sure that your children and their identification documents are in the house with you. The officers need to make sure that the children are who you say they are and that they are safe.

These documents include:

• Passports
• ID cards
• Visas
• Birth certificates

During this call you can tell the officers:

• Which school you would like your children to go to
• If your children have any special needs - educational, religious or health
• What your concerns might be about your children starting a new school in Coventry
• Anything else that you want the officers to know

If your child/children have any Special Educational Needs, the following form will be completed and the information will be shared with our Statutory Assessment and Review Team (START)

Read this information in Arabic, Polish, Romanian or Urdu. 

Languages can be studied at the Supplementary and Community schools in Coventry. They are open after school and at weekends.

Your children can get help with their learning in school

Don't be worried if your children can't speak English yet. We have experienced teachers who advise schools so that your children make good progress. Our teachers have lots of great ideas for schools to use to help your children learn and enjoy school.

We train teachers to understand how to teach newly arrived pupils well. We also tell schools how they can welcome new families and make them feel safe and valued.

Your children's school might ask for help from our Multilingual Assistants (MLAs)

Multilingual Assistants help pupils in schools when they have little or no English. They work in the classroom explaining and translating the lessons into a language your child can understand.

Some of the MLAs languages are:

• Polish
• Romanian
• Arabic
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Dari

MLAs also do these things:

• Show new parents like you and your children around school
• Help your children learn some English language straight away
• Give teachers cultural and linguistic information about your children that will help in the lessons 
• Help pupils in Years 7 to 13 learn their subject teacher's name, the timetable and the geography of the school
• Meet your family with a member of school staff if you or they want to talk about your children's school
• Translate for you during parents' evenings
• Explain homework tasks to you if you're not sure what the school wants

All our Multilingual Assistants receive comprehensive induction training before they begin their work in schools. They are all DBS cleared and all have Level 1 Safeguarding training.

If you speak another language fluently and have good English, you might like to become an MLA. Look out for our adverts on careers.coventry.gov.uk. We are always looking for new people to join our service.

Some home languages can be studied at the Supplementary and Community schools in Coventry. They are open after school and at weekends.  (link to supplementary schools directory)

If you would like more information about Coventry please visit the Welcome to Coventry site.

New to city SEN referral