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Tamil Primary Language and Family Learning Project, Downderry Primary School

This resourceful project effectively uses the language skills of the school’s parents to foster language and social integration within the school. Through group workshops parents and pupils at Downderry Primary school have been developing and sharing both their language and ICT skills. The project works with recently arrived Tamil speaking parents on topic based activities such as making cut out paper Diwali lanterns. Through talk around the activities the children develop Tamil while parents develop their English and IT skills.

The school has held lively cultural events and displays and festivals such as Diwali and Tamil New year are celebrated in school assemblies, led by children and parents from the project. Video clips of celebrations in the homeland are used to introduce the whole school to greetings in Tamil and the associated displays really encourage language.

Downderry Primary School is in Bromley, Kent, funded by the London Borough of Lewisham. It has a multi-lingual intake, including a significant percentage of Tamil-speaking children.

Language(s): Tamil