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We are so proud of our school community. One of the unique and fantastic aspects of our school is that we have over 30 languages spoken at Highwoods- this provides all of our pupils and staff with a great sense of pride and allows us to fully embrace different cultures and religions. Our children and community respect and appreciate that we are all unique, yet we can always find similarities in the values we hold: kindness, respect, honesty, responsibility and positivity (our Highwood's High Five) underpin this. 

Being bilingual or multi-lingual has many advantages. A child's home language is part of their identity; it is a connection to their family, community and culture.

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework (1:7) states that:

'For children whose home language is not English, providers must take reasonable steps to provide opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning, supporting their language development at home'.

Please read the document issued by gov.uk, entitled 'The importance of home language'.

English as an additional language (essex.gov.uk)

This link goes directly to the Essex Schools website and you can scroll down to access it in the language of your choice. 

Pupils from our school have presented assemblies on their culture and heritage. We have had presentations on the following:

• Ghana
• India 
• Poland 
• Ukraine 
• Islam
• Christianity 
• Hinduism 
• Ramadan and Eid 
• Italy 
• Nigeria 
• Latvia 
• Czech Republic 
• Judaism 

We have a range of reading books in classes and libraries that reflect our school community-we have invested time to make sure we have high quality literature that supports all children in knowing more and remembering more of other cultures and religions. 

We also have books in our libraries that are available in lots of different languages: