Working with a bilingual support partner

If you have the opportunity to use a bilingual support partner to help families who have learners working from home, it may be useful to prepare a list of questions for this staff member to ask. Bilingual support is extremely useful when making contact with parents who speak little or no English.

General care

• Is everyone in the family well?
• Do you understand the rules about going outside?
• Are you going outside every day?
• Are you meeting up with friends and family?
• Is there someone who can help you if you need anything?
• Are you worried about anything?
• Have you got enough food and/or medicine?
• Do you know how to contact the emergency services?

Accessing school work

• Is your child working at home?
• Is this easy?
• Does ____ have access to a computer or similar device?
• Does ____ have access to WiFi?
• Do you have access to email?
• Does ____ have a quiet space to work?
• Does ____ have their school books at home?
• Do you have paper and pens at home?
• Do you have any story books at home?
• Is ____ working every day on school work?
• Do you know how to contact your school?

We’ve created an easily downloadable list of these questions to ask parents when calling home, which you can download by clicking on the button below.