Nursery places

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Nursery places	Stephen Woulds

introduction > Notes: Stephen interviews Joanne (a college administrator) and asks her about the difficulties faced by ESOL students who need a child place. Changes in government funding means asylum seekers no longer have access to free places. Mothers often depend on friends and family. Many asylum seekers are isolated and do not have access to such 'cultural capital' with negative impact on their language development; some even resorting to leaving children at home so they can attend classes. What experiences do the class have of nursery places within college and education systems? How does childcare provision differ in their countries of origin? What might happen to children left at home? Draw attention to the potentially problematic language highlighted in bold. Note the fillers, false starts, repetition and what the purposes of these are in unrehearsed, spontaneous speech. For instance, draw attention to print English and the differences; few 'natives' speak with perfect English Remove certain words and use transcript as an audio gapfill or standard reading gapfill.
transcript > Click the audio player on the left to listen. Stephen: So, er, hello Joanne. Joanne: Hello. Stephen: Erm, students come to you . Joanne: Yes. Stephen: ESOL students, erm, they want an ESOL class . Joanne: Yes. Stephen: Erm, but they have a child or two children and they want a crèche place for their child. Joanne: Yes. Stephen: Can you tell us what the process is? Joanne: Okay, for the college, for the college nursery . Stephen: Mhmm Joanne: . the demand is immense, it's really high and the demand overtakes the supply. Erm, people are better, in a better position, ESOL students are in a better position if they can try and access outside childcare. The problem is it does depend on their status. If people are an asylum seeker, unfortunately, they are not able to get an outside nursery place until the child is three. So it does place them in a very difficult situation. This is because the government cut the funding, eighteen months, two years ago. And the college nursery is in a similar position and is not supposed to place the children of asylum seekers in their nursery. Stephen: What would happen then? What would you suggest asylum seekers do then, if they can't get a child place in the nursery, what do you recommend they do? Joanne: It's very, very difficult for them and most of them rely on, erm, if they have a partner, erm, if they have friends, there is a lot of asylum seekers in college, maybe one lady comes in the morning and her children are with a friend, one l., the other lady comes in the afternoon . and we . I would try and work with them to place them in opposite classes or if, if, they were able to do that. A lot of people feel it's a very high demand to make of a friend and I would agree, that somebody, for somebody to look after your child three or four times a week. Stephen: And have there ever been any cases where children have been left at home on their own? Joanne: They have and I think there's probably more cases than we know of really. Stephen: This is the mothers coming to class . Joanne: Yes. Stephen: . because they, they, feel they need to learn the English . Joanne: Yes. Stephen: . but having to leave children at home to look after themselves. Joanne: That, that's right, yes. It's very unfortunate. Stephen: Mhmm. Joanne: We have sometimes placed them in the college nursery in the outer centres, in our community centre classes. Erm, if we have places and we've filled from our list and there are asylum seekers that we know are good attenders, don't have any other option, we would try and place them and maybe do one per session, but it's difficult to balance that against other things when, when we're audited for funding . Stephen: Mhmm. Joanne: . we could be criticised. Stephen: Okay, that's excellent Joanne. Thank you.
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