Team Roles

Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service is part of Hampshire County Council Children's Services Department. The service is led by the Team Leader, Anwen Foy.

The team roles and responsibilities are as follows:

Team leader

Anwen Foy is county inspector/adviser (EMTAS). She leads the Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service, giving professional leadership and monitoring ethnic minority achievement across Hampshire.

Strand managers

The New Arrivals Strand is managed by the Operations Manager Newly-arrived pupils (for whom English is an additional language), refugee or asylum-seeking pupils are referred to the service. The New Arrivals Manager manages the deployment of bilingual assistants in conjunction with the Bilingual Assistant Manager so that all pupils are given an early profiling assessment as soon as possible and a total of 10 hours bilingual support is offered where needed.

The Training Manager's role is to develop quality of teaching and assistance for ethnic minority pupils in all schools, in order to raise achievement. The role also includes developing and maintaining a programme of literacy training for schools, developing and co-ordinating baseline specialist training for teachers, developing the bilingual new arrival conferencing offered to schools, and managing staff development within the Hampshire EMTAS team. Training outcomes will also be monitored.

Bilingual Assistant Manager - Kamaljit Dulai

Kamaljit's role is:

setting up and attending interviews for new bilingual assistants
arranging induction and training of new staff
attending and conducting some areas of training
acting as line manager to bilingual assistants
carrying out bilingual assistants' work reviews
liaising with the team leader and specialist teachers on matters relating to bilingual assistants' roles and school agreement
time-tabling bilingual assistants in consultation with the team leader

Specialist teachers

The specialist teachers work within one or more of the 3 strands namely, New Arrivals, Training and Achievement projects. Much of the work of the 3 strands is interlinked.

Within the New Arrival and Achievement Project strands specialist teachers work collaboratively with class/subject teachers in order to provide appropriate teaching strategies, activities and experiences that support bilingual learners' language and learning needs and raise achievement of ethnic minority pupils. Wherever possible they will develop and disseminate appropriate language and curriculum support materials in collaboration with their mainstream colleagues. Additionally they give professional leadership and advice to school staff in supporting pupils' developing use of English. This can involve joint curriculum planning, delivery and evaluation, support for whole school policies, participation in planning meetings and in-service training. They will also ensure that detailed early profiling is carried out on each newly arrived pupil referred to the service and provide focused support for end of key stage tasks/tests.

Specialist teachers involved in the Training strand contribute to in-service training arranged for schools with new arrivals and specific training within the Hampshire EMA Service achievement project schools.

All specialist teachers collect performance data on target pupils (e.g. NC English levels, post 16 leavers' routes, GCSE results), keeping careful records and ensuring that information is regularly shared with mainstream colleagues and incorporated into the school's profiling system. They work too in collaboration with school staff to facilitate liaison between home, school and community, perhaps being involved in parents' evenings, secondary transfer meetings, option choice and career interviews. They support the pastoral needs of pupils through casework consultation with mainstream teachers and in liaison with other involved agencies, and Hampshire EMTAS colleagues where appropriate.

Bilingual assistants

Bilingual assistants provide a support service complementary to teaching activities, primarily through heritage language or bilingual communication. They work in partnership with the class, subject or Hampshire EMA Service teacher to give bilingual learners access to the curriculum. Most of the bilingual assistants' time should be in contact with pupils and parents. Bilingual assistants are frequently required to deal with matters of a very sensitive nature in their negotiations with parents, pupils, teachers and local communities. They are expected to handle such situations sensitively and with absolute confidentiality.

The Hampshire EMTAS bilingual assistant should:

act as a classroom assistant, supporting bilingually the pupils' language and learning needs
support the class, subject or Hampshire EMTAS teacher in providing a stress-free 'settling in' period for new arrivals from country of origin. (This may include involvement in admission, induction, assessment and placement procedures, e.g. parent and pupil conferences.)
assist in monitoring progress and assessing performance including:
- early profiling of new arrivals
- teacher assessment and records of achievement
- standard assessment tasks and tests
assist in developing language and curriculum support materials under the guidance of the class, subject or Hampshire EMTAS teacher or a bilingual assistants' manager
assist in pastoral support systems and alert school and Hampshire EMTAS staff to pupils' bicultural needs, including sensitive religious and cultural information, e.g. dietary requirements
assist in promoting home/school links, e.g. interpreting at parents' evenings, translating letters from school - by arrangement with a bilingual assistants' manager
support schools in extending links with local communities
support Hampshire EMTAS team managers in setting up and developing community liaison groups to support project monitoring.

The Hampshire EMTAS bilingual assistant should not:

carry out general classroom clearing and preparation, unless integral to their task
be solely responsible for designing activities and resources or managing/monitoring groups or recording pupil progress.
be asked to translate lengthy documents, e.g. governors report, school reports to parents. Brief school/home communications and language/curriculum support materials, e.g. dual language key word lists are acceptable for translation. Longer translations can be requested through the Hampshire EMTAS school-funded top-up service.
be asked to make home visits on his or her own. Bilingual assistants should be accompanied by Hampshire EMTAS/school staff.

Resources manager

The Resources Manager manages the running of the Resources Centre at our Basingstoke office. Work includes promoting and marketing Hampshire EMTAS and producing resource packs which schools can buy. Additionally she assists with the production of training materials and delivers training on resources to mainstream staff.

Operations manager and admin team

The team is supported by the Operations Manager, who is responsible for personnel and financial management; two admin officers (one based in Havant) and one finance officer based in Basingstoke.

Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS)