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Jersey’s Polish School has transformed its library following an £800 donation from the Parish of St Helier.
The Polish School has bought over 100 books to help bilingual Polish children on the Island learn to read in their mother tongue.
Cartons of text books and reading books from the U.S and Poland arrived on the island earlier this month.
The books are for early readers from the age of four, up to 16-year-olds studying GCSE Polish. Over 120 children attend classes at the Polish School each Saturday. The School currently has nine teachers, all Polish graduates with professional teaching certificates.
Dominika Nalichowska, Head Teacher at Jersey Polish School, said: “We can’t use the same textbooks as children studying in Poland because children who are reading Polish in Jersey do not have the same level of vocabulary. They need books which use simpler words.
“The textbooks we use come from Chicago, where they have been designed by the Polish Teachers Association. Due to a long history of immigration, the United States, and in particular Chicago, has a huge Polish community.”
Since the school opened in 2011 it has grown rapidly, and now has a waiting list of 20 children for the nursery classes. Children have to be bilingual in Polish by the age of four or five, if they are ever to speak it as a mother tongue.
One of the school’s aims is to ensure children in Jersey who have a Polish parent reach a good enough level of Polish that they could re-enter the Polish education system again if necessary.
Simon Crowcroft said: “We have a parish fund available for charitable donations and we have used the fund to help buy books for the Polish school.
“The majority of the fund goes on short term projects, such as trips, or helping individuals in extreme difficultly, so it’s good to be occasionally able to buy something tangible like these books.
“They should have a long lasting benefit for the school and for the successive groups of children attending it.”
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