“To Nurture leaders with character and competence”
Fountainhead School Student Mission Statement

The kind of leaders that the school hopes to nurture are those who can take charge of their lives, work effectively with others, do the right thing even when no one is watching them, and are internationally minded. Such leaders need both character and competence to survive and succeed.

The language policy interprets competence as proficiency/ mastery in more than one language and character as learners who take pride in their knowledge of English as well as their home and family language and who are sensitive to choosing the language of interaction as per context and audience. Thus, the language policy and school mission statement are aligned.

The language policy document aims to consolidate ideas and beliefs at Fountainhead School Malgama regarding language and language teaching and outlines systems and strategies in place to support the development of English as a lingua franca¹ as well as the development and maintenance of home and family languages in the school community.

This document also seeks to ensure that, as an authorized IB World School, compliance with IBO Standards and Practices is in place.

This document should be referred to when planning for language teaching, curriculum planning and professional development.

The audience for this document, apart from the teaching community, also includes the parent community at Fountainhead School Malgama as well as new and interested parents seeking admission in Fountainhead School Malgama.

¹ A language that is used among people who speak various different languages

Standard: Purpose (0101)

• Purpose 3: The school community fosters internationally minded people who embody all attributes of the IB learner profile. (0101-03)
• Purpose 3.1: The school ensures that the school community is aware of the IB learner profile and is committed to international-mindedness and its importance in embodying the IB mission. (0101-03-0100)

Standard: Leadership and governance (0201): Student support (0202)

• Student support 1: The school provides relevant human, natural, built and virtual resources to implement its IB programme(s). (0202-01)
• Student support 1.6: The school maintains a functioning and active library consisting of adequate combinations of people, places, collections and services that aid and extend learning and teaching. (0202-01-0600)

Standard: Culture through policy implementation (0301)

• Culture 4: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews a language policy that helps to foster intercultural understanding through communicating in a variety of ways in more than one language (0301-04)
• Culture 4.1: The school implements and reviews a language policy that is aligned with IB language policy guidelines. (0301-04-0100)
• Culture 4.2: The school describes in its language policy the way that the school recognizes multilingualism as a fact, a right and a resource for learning. (0301-04-0200)
• Culture 4.3: The school identifies in its language policy a variety of physical and virtual resources used to facilitate language development. (0301-04-0300)
• Culture 4.4: The school clearly describes in its language policy the rights and responsibilities of all members of the school community and what constitutes good practice within the school context. (0301-04-0400)
• PYP 1: The school ensures that students learn a language in addition to the language of instruction (at least from the age of seven). Multilingual programmes, where students are learning in at least two languages, can but are not required to offer additional languages. (0301-04-0411)

Standard: Learning (04)

Standard: Students as lifelong learners (0402)

• Lifelong learners 7: Students pursue opportunities to explore and develop their personal and cultural identities. (0402-07)
• Lifelong learners 7.1: The school provides opportunities for students to explore and develop their personal and cultural identities. (0402-07-0100)
• Lifelong learners 7.2: The school community affirms individual student identity through learning and teaching. (0402-07-0200)
• Lifelong learners 7.3: Students take opportunities to develop their language profiles. (0402-07-0300)

Standard: Approaches to teaching (0403)

• Approaches to teaching 5: Teachers remove barriers to learning to enable every student to develop, pursue and achieve challenging personal learning goals. (0403-05)
• Approaches to teaching 5.4: Teachers support language development with consideration for the language profiles of students. (0403-05-0400)
• Approaches to teaching 5.1: Teachers consider learner variability when planning students’ personal learning goals. (0403-05-0100)
• Approaches to teaching 5.3: Teachers use IB-mandated policies to support students. (0403-05-0300)

Language is fundamental to learning, thinking and communicating.

• aLanguage fulfills three fundamental, compelling human urges- to connect with others, to understand our world and ourselves in it.
• bLanguage is socially constructed and depends on the kind, nature and frequency of one’s social interaction in the community.
• cLearners acquire language by first listening to it and understanding it, then speaking it, then reading and finally writing it. The learning process simultaneously involves learning language--as learners listen to and use language with others in their everyday lives; learning about language--as learners grow in their understanding of how language works; and learning through language--as learners use language as a tool to listen, think, discuss and reflect on information, ideas and issues (Halliday 1980). These three aspects are best thought of as linked processes.

Language is a vehicle for inquiry

• 1Language plays a vital role in the construction of meaning. It provides a framework to support conceptual development and critical thinking.
• 2Language is tightly linked to cognitive growth because it is the process by which meaning and knowledge are negotiated and constructed.
• 3A threshold level of cognitive academic learning proficiency (CALP) is essential for all learners to participate and engage with the IB programmes.
• 4Considering the context of the school and the language profile of students, stand-alone teaching of agreed-upon knowledge and skills of language is necessary to allow students to access the IB programmes. In this case too, the teaching and learning should continue to focus on authentic contexts, learner-centred practice and interaction with cognitively rich materials and experiences.

Language is a means of affirming and expressing individual and cultural identity and developing international mindedness.

• 1The school recognizes that a majority of our learners are additional language learners of English and the school plays a pivotal role in providing an enriching environment and support for language development so that all learners are empowered to participate fully in the school’s academics.
• 2A caring language community with participation from parents, students, teachers and the wider society goes a long way in developing confident language learners.
• 3The school values and uses the diversity of cultures, languages and perspectives in the school community to enhance learning.
• 4Students may have a wealth of background knowledge encoded in their home and family languages (HFL) which can be activated as a base for future learning using translanguaging strategies.
• 5The school believes in and promotes additive multilingualism (as opposed to subtractive multilingualism) to affirm the identity and self-esteem of all members of the school community.

Multilingualism has several benefits to the learner as well as the learning community

• 1Multilingualism benefits learners and the learning community by enriching the personal development of a child and also facilitates international mindedness.
• 2Multilingualism has cognitive benefits relating to attention and focuses, problem-solving thinking skills and thinking about language (Kessler, Quinn 1980; Zelasko, Antunez 2000)
• 3Multilingualism helps deepen understanding of alternative perspectives and takes into account the complex reality of the world’s diverse sociocultural contexts.

English is taught as the primary language across the Early Years and Primary Years Programmes. It has priority in the school’s language programme because:

• aThe preferred language of teaching that parents expect at the school is English.
• bEnglish is the language of most scientific, business and official communication in India and is also the most widely spoken language across the world.
• cIt is the preferred language of communication in the school and is acceptable to all the stakeholders including parents.

Language learning is spread across subject areas and through the programme of inquiry and all PYP teachers at FSM are viewed and view themselves as language teachers.

English is the primary language taught at the Primary years and also the language through which the students access the PYP curriculum. The school offers Hindi (one of the official languages of India) as an additional language from Grade 1 and Gujarati (the regional language of the state Gujarat) as a 3rd language from Grade 2.

Teachers plan learning experiences in language within meaningful and enjoyable contexts and learners are able to make connections, apply their learning, and transfer their conceptual understanding to new situations. This progressive conceptual development, together with an enjoyment of the process, provides the foundation for lifelong learning.

The school also acknowledges that learning to comprehend language through listening, reading and viewing and to express through speaking; writing and presenting go hand in hand and hence, promotes integrated language development. The three strands of communication: oral, written and visual are interwoven and interrelated and not taught in isolation.

The school aims to develop language by making learners literate about the language (know its form, context and conventional use), develop their multiple literacies (engage with texts that are paper, live, electronic or multimodal) and critical literacy skills (identify perspectives, purpose and techniques within texts, and identify how an audience is positioned by a writer or producer of text in order to present their point of view).

FSM believes that literature plays a very important role in language development. Literature helps to reconnect feeling and thinking. It expands our life spaces and takes us outside the boundaries of our life experiences to other places, time periods and ways of living. It also stretches our imagination and invites us to consider “what if”. Above all, it is a very powerful tool to transform children’s lives as children carry these literary experiences back into their own worlds and view their lives differently. Students at FSM are involved in a book study of minimum 1 book every year from Grade 1 onwards as per their age and readiness level.

The school also sees culturally diverse literature as a powerful means to develop international mindedness and attributes of the learner profile in all learners. The library collection reflects this belief in its collection of picture books, folk tales, bilingual books etc.

Fountainhead School Malgama recognizes that HFL’s are an integral part of an individual’s identity and it is important to affirm, value, develop, promote and maintain students’ HFL. The school recognizes that multilingualism is an essential aspect of the typical classroom at FSM. Teachers are encouraged to use this in the best way possible without undermining the importance of the development of English as a lingua franca*.

The school teaches both these languages - Hindi and Gujarati.

Translanguaging is about communication, not about the language itself. There are times when we need to be language teachers, focusing on accuracy in English so that our learners can pass exams and be taken as proficient speakers in wider society. Much of the time, though, we are working with students to explore concepts, add to their knowledge, make connections between ideas and to help them make their voices heard by others. This is often about communicating, and this is where using all our language resources can be very valuable.

E ALJournal.org 2016

The school views all teachers in the school throughout all programmes as language teachers. It is acknowledged that some teachers are more proficient in their HFL than in the language of instruction in the school. The school takes responsibility for ensuring that such teachers are appropriately trained to teach in the language of instruction. Further, they are encouraged to use HFL in interaction with students where there is a wealth of relevant background knowledge encoded in their (the teacher’s as well as student’s) HFL.

Adhering to the belief that when a language one uses in daily communication is denigrated, a part of him or her is also being denigrated, there are no discipline procedures that impact a student or teacher’s use of their HFL in classes. However, there is a danger of using the HFL as a crutch while expressing and in the process, suppressing the development of English language fluency. Therefore, the guideline for use of translanguaging strategies in the classroom is that HFL’s can be used as a support language - translanguaging should be used wherever the teacher feels the need and sees value in its use. An example of this could be: activating prior knowledge of students, recording anecdotes of students in Early years verbatim, exploring cultural beliefs and values etc.

Teachers are encouraged to think of the following questions while planning to make a decision whether to incorporate translanguaging strategies or not.

• What are the language backgrounds and needs of my students?
• Do I want to scaffold content or language?
• What content is not easily accessible to particular students?
• What are the unit aspects which might best be approached through a home language? (for example, local or cultural knowledge).
• In what ways can translanguaging strategies be incorporated into the engagements--pre-engagement, partner/collaborative and using home language resources?
• Am I using home languages for input or output or both?

Some examples include:

• Students share new information with each other in home language, they record it in home language/ English and share it with the class in target language (Target language could be English or Hindi or French or Gujarati).
• While brainstorming for a writing piece, students include visuals, words, text from HFL, seek teacher / peer support in translating these ideas in target language and construct a text in target language.
• Students watch a movie/ documentary/ interview in HFL and share the understanding in target language with the class.
• A buddy system in class where student A helps student B with translating her ideas in target language.
• Students read or hear a text in the language of instruction and ask each other questions about it in their home language.
• Students are given time to have face to face conversations with each other in home language to process content.

The library is central to the language programme at Fountainhead School Malgama. The library provides a learning space and an environment to promote love for reading books as well as a place for research.

The library is resourced with fiction, non-fiction, picture books, chapter books, board books, pop-up-books, big books, multicultural books, world classics, autobiographies, multilingual books, reference books, encyclopedias and media that are accessible to all students and staff. The school sees the library as a valuable resource to promote the international mindedness aspect of the IB programmes.

The library is also seen as a place which makes a strong statement that all languages are celebrated and supported. With a diverse collection of bilingual books and books in various regional languages of India, the library plays a crucial role in promoting and maintaining the development of home and family languages (HFL) and the school continues to add to this collection.

The library also provides resources for collaborative planning, researching and teacher professional development.

The library team also conducts various events throughout the year like author week, poetry month, celebrating an author’s birthday etc to promote reading as a school culture.

The preferred language of learning for all students is English, as per the survey conducted for students and parents. Hence the language of instruction is English, but additional support is provided where required.

As stated earlier, almost all students at Fountainhead School Malgama are second language learners of English. The school recognizes that learning a second language is a developmental process that occurs over time. Hence, the school does not have a separate ESL or an EAL programme for students as the school views all students at entry age as ESL learners. Hence, in the Early years, a lot of focus is laid on understanding English through listening and speaking exercises and multimodal ways.

However, there are some students who meet one or more of the following conditions:

• 1Are first-generation learners of English
• 2Have zero support for English language learning at home
• 3Come from schools where the language of instruction is not English.
• 4Are admitted in Fountainhead School Malgama at a higher grade and have poor foundation skills in English.
• 5Have been diagnosed with a condition that inhibits their learning process.

Such students require additional support to enable them to access the school curriculum in a manner that allows them to reach their full potential.

The school has designed an ALS programme for such students. The process of shortlisting a student for ALS programme involves a series of steps like informal screening, observations, feedback given by the previous grade’s teacher, assessment reports of previous year/ previous school, feedback about student’s home environment, assessments taken at the time of admission (for new students), assessments taken at the beginning of the academic year (for existing students) etc. The programme is a combination of classroom support or/ and pull out programme of intensive support for a stipulated time period.

As per individual cases, the curriculum could be simplified or different expectations could be held from such students. Assessments may also be modified as well as special access arrangements could be provided on a case-to-case basis.

The school’s new hire training programme trains teachers across the programme for teaching language. Beyond this, teachers learn on the job and through professional development opportunities in school as well as training conducted externally by language experts. The school endeavors to conduct language development sessions for teachers who are not proficient in English. However, this does not have priority in the school’s professional development plan and teachers are expected to be self driven to master the level of proficiency needed to teach their subjects with expertise.

• Fox, Mem. Radical Reflections: Passionate Opinions on Teaching, Learning, and Living. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993. Print.
• Fox, Mem. Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.
• Halliday, M. A. K, and Jonathan Webster. The Language Of Early Childhood. London: Continuum, 2003. Print.
• Lindfors, Judith Wells. Children’s Inquiry: Using Language to Make Sense of the World. New York: Teachers College, 1999. Print.
• Primary Years Programme How Multilingual Is My School--A Self-Audit Tool. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2018. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . <https://resources.ibo.org/data/how-multilingual-is-my-school-a-self-audit-tool_9035239d-7063-4e1a-9d47-11e60095ca92/PRC-p-0-pypxx-tsm-mul-1-e_b1d8fc00-9409-4fcc-a844-7eef69e3321c.pdf>.
• Primary Years Programme Language Scope And Sequence. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2009. Web. 27 Nov. 2019 . <https://resources.ibo.org/data/p_0_langu_sco_0902_2_e.pdf>.
• Primary Years Programme Learning And Teaching. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2018. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . <https://resources.ibo.org/data/learning-and-teaching_899fc563-3f16-4ad6-89c7-f60983c9d6d3/PRC-p-0-pypxx-gui-lt-1-e_bffd8f20-78b3-4d6e-83dc-7255d1bf1c29.pdf>.
• Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme And Diploma Programme Guidelines For Developing A School Language Policy. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . <https://resources.ibo.org/data/g_0_iboxx_amo_0804_2_e.pdf>.
• Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme And Diploma Programme Language And Learning In IB Programmes. 3rd ed. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . <https://resources.ibo.org/data/g_0_learn_amo_1109_2_e.pdf>.
• Ryan, P. (2019). Transcript of “Don’t insist on English!”. [online] Ted.com. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english/transcript?language=en.
• Short, Kathy Gnagey. Literature as a Way of Knowing. York, Me.: Stenhouse, 1997. Print.
• Short Kathy Gnaney. Theory Into Practice, The Search for “Balance” in a Literature- Rich Curriculum. Volume 38. Number3. Ohio State University.1999. Print.
• Sridhar, Manaswini. “Thinking about Language.” Editorial. Teacher Plus May 2012: 4-5. Print.
• Syal, Pushpinder. “Interview of M.L. Tickoo.” Language and Language Learning 1.1 (2012): 60-64. Print.
• Tooms, Autumn K., Nancy Padak, and Timothy V. Rasinski. The Principal’s Essential Guide to Literacy in the Elementary School. New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.
• “Use Of Target Language In Language Learning | ACTFL.” Actfl.org. N.p., 2019. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . <https://www.actfl.org/guiding-principles/use-target-language-language-learning>.
• Gujarat Compulsory teaching of Gujarati: National Education Policy 2020 https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/acts_states/gujarat/2023/Actno4of2023Gujarat.pdf
• Principles into practice : Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme And Diploma Programme Language And Learning In IB Programmes. 3rd ed. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 Learning And Teaching: Language. https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/works/pyp_11162-51465?root=1.6.2.14.11&lang=en&odd=ibo.odd&view=div
• Principles into practice : Primary Years Programme : Student language portraits: International Baccalaureate Organization, 2018. Web. 28 Nov. 2019 . https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/subject-group/Teacher-support-materials/works/pyp_11162-55968?lang=en
• Guidelines for school self-reflection on its language policy: International Baccalaureate Organization 2012 <https://resources.ibo.org/data/g_0_learn_amo_1206_2_e.pdf>
• “Programme Standards and Practices 2020.” IBO, IBO, Apr. 2020, <www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/become-an-ib-school/pdfs/programme-standards-and-practices-2020-en.pdf.>

• What is the role that language plays in this world?
• Are some languages more important than others?
• Does language help or hinder a person’s personal and/or professional growth?
• What are some challenges with respect to English language development that Fountainhead School Malgama has because of its unique context? (city, demographics, language profile of the school community)

This is an internal note written for circulation in the school community which guides staff members

For all teachers and admin staff: HOW SHOULD WE LOOK AT PARENTS WHO ARE NOT “WELL-EDUCATED”

We have been meaning to address this for some time. The issue is of parents who are themselves not educated much or cannot speak / understand English much. It is perhaps a natural tendency for many of us to “look down” upon such parents. However I feel that we are doing a grave injustice to such parents and by extension to their children.

It is just not possible for all parents to be well educated or for them to know English, because that’s the reality of our society, our town. I know that my mom (Vardan) wouldn’t have spoken English well, if I was in this school and if she would have been looked down upon, I don’t think either my mom or I would have liked it - and more importantly we wouldn’t have benefitted from the school as much.

Can any one of us get up and say that “Your child should be educated at FSM, only if you know English or you are well-educated”? If not then we must change our attitude and our efforts towards such parents

In fact parents of this kind are often the ones who are even more keen on their children getting quality education now - they want those things for their children which they didn’t get themselves (and more). I would feel that a lot of appreciation is due to them in such cases.

Many parents who are not very interested in things happening in school (or supporting their child) are not because they don’t want to support their child, but because we haven’t been able to communicate with them. We have to take that extra step from inside and outside to guide them in how they should support their child.

The reason we mention this now is because of the upcoming PCM - which is the first point of interaction with your class parents. You MUST make genuine efforts to make such parents comfortable and not feel left out. As a school and as individual teachers and staff, we have to make each parent feel that they are getting the right support from the school.

This document is created with a common consensus of all the staff members representing the teaching community. We have agreed to own the language agreements listed below to meet our objective of developing English as the best language of the students without making it a burden or without denigrating other languages.