In her April 14 Superintendent’s Blog, Heather Perry shared information on the multilingual families in the Gorham schools. There have been multilingual families in Gorham for a long time, of course, we have had multilingual students (ML) in Gorham for a long time, but like all schools in our area, we are seeing an increase in this population of learners in our schools.
Did you know that we have 24 different languages spoken by Gorham Ram families across our schools? Check out the list below…
“These languages ebb and flow. Currently Portuguese seems to be the newest language popping up in the greatest numbers across our schools. If you happen to know Portuguese and are looking to volunteer in schools let us know,” reported Superintendent Perry.
There are currently 91 multilingual students across our five schools. You can see a six-year history by school in the graph below:
The students that are being served have a myriad of language learning needs ranging from students and families who are just now entering into learning a new language in English (often on top of the 2-3 languages that are already spoken in the home) to those who are fully capable of communicating in English as well as multiple other languages.
According to the superintendent, “What is most interesting and exciting about our overall numbers of ML students is that it seems that the number of students in our schools in that early “entering” or “beginning” phase of learning have increased the most. These are the students most in need of direct supportive services.”
Superintendent Perry continued, “In the Gorham Schools we are excited by the opportunities this diverse population of students and families can bring to our awesome community and to our schools! THANK YOU to our team of just three multilingual teachers who work with our teachers, administrators, these students, and their families each and every day to make sure these students and their families are an integral and celebrated part of our Gorham Ram community. Our three teachers, Erica Woods, Cecely Conrad, and Heather Alden deserve a huge thank you from our learning community.”