Thanks, its just that she is miserable at the moment and that is very unlike her

Oh..its very early days and she probably dosent understand very much yet which maybe where the tears are coming from.

A slap on the face isnt nice but no different from any british playgroup...they arent much more than babies.

Children are so resilient......make sure you come back in a few months and say how she is getting on then...she will be a lot more settled I bet.

Just give her encouragement and get her learning names of animals etc and simple sentences.

it's totally normal though - she'll almost certainly settle in before you know it

I've seen so many children come here over the years who were exactly like that for a few weeks, leaving the parents in tears (more than the kids in fact) at the school gate

then one day they run in happily & all is forgotten

Never truer words spoken.....my daughter was 8 when we came here and we all had an awful time to start with...and yes I probably cried more than her.

But 3 years down the line and a school change... we have one happy child who loves going to school every day.

thanks for all the kind words and encouragement

she is definitely learning, she was cleaning the windows yesterday and saying to herself up, down in spanish which she learnt in school.

Her mum gets her to pay in shops, pay on the bus etc which she loves I think is is just cos she is the new girl as she loved play school in England and had lots of little friends

Yes, that's a great age to do it. At the other end of the scale, my DIL is deputy head of a large boy's school, and she has just asked me to do some translation for her. It seems a Spanish woman has just moved into her area, doesn't speak a word of English, and has dumped her 15 year old son at the school, who hasn't a single word of English. It beggars belief, the poor lad is going to struggle, I feel really sorry for him. They don't teach Spanish at the school, so have no Spanish speakers, in the few days he has been there they have communicated via Google Translator! I'm sure they'll get some support for him soon, he must be shellshocked.

poor kid!!

I've seen it happen the other way around too - but at least there's usually someone who can speak English!!

a few years ago I met a lad from Georgia (the one near Russia) - he came here at age 14 & he was 16 when I met him

he didn't know a word of Spanish when he arrived, but with lots of hard work & complete immersion (I doubt it's easy to get Georgian TV here & the only other person he ever came across who spoke his language was his mother) he had caught up & was expected to graduate on time with good grades

so it can be done

Of course one of the other drawbacks is that these poor children will eventually learn the language of the school they are in but the only knowledge they will have of their native language will be from their parents. If they don't have a hgh standard of their langauge or can't spell, the children will pick up their faults. How many times these days do you so 'could of' as just one example ??

sad, & sometimes true because they will pick up lazy speech patterns from their parents

it has to be said though, that although they will be learning written English as a 'foreign' language at school, they will learn much more about grammar than their compatriots in the UK - and their spelling will often be much better, too

of course it does largely depend upon the teachers - & we have been lucky there in that the head of English at my dds' school actually lived in the UK for several years & speaks excellent English with barely a trace of a Spanish accent!

I don't suppose it hurts that I teach too.....

and also from their Spanish mates, but then they will soon appreciate the benefit they are having in learning 2 languages which hopefully will enable them to move on to other languages

oh that back in the 60's there was more emphasis on foreign languages, although I am sure Miss Smith will be laughing in her grave at the amount of the French I still remember when trying to use Spanish

Bitter ignorant comments like this deter people from using forums. Instead of trying to make the OP feel guilty when she's clearly worried about the girl, why not offer some advice or bite your lip.

That says it all really. I always say that when people have done two weeks in a new job, new school, new house etc it somehow becomes a temporary problem and all you want to do is cry, shout, sulk or whatever but this seems to improve within a very short time.

You are all being so kind and considerate to her that maybe in a minor way may be adding to her problem. How good is your Spanish? If it is at all weak encourage her to help you with it, maybe mispronounce some words or call something by the wrong name. Kids love to be better at something than an adult and it will boost her confidence. My grandson is learning Spanish at school in the UK and was thrilled that I had said that I could not have done the homework that he had been set.

Find nursery rhyme CD´s in Spanish and have them on so that you can sing along with her. All the old tricks that you did when she was smaller and learning her English will now work using Spanish, it may seem strange doing things that you would do with a 2 year old but this will help her enormously.

Another thing that may help is having some of the children home to play so that they build up a relationship out of school that will then be perpetuated in the school breaks.

Rosemary

'Bitter ignorant comments' Not bitter nor ignorant but heartfelt. I suspect the poster wouldn't like the advice I would offer which would be to put her in a school that speaks English until she gets used to the rest of the issues (like a new school/new country).

and then move her all over again.............