Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered to read a story in their home language to our Elementary School and Early Years students! So far, we have had readings in German, Finnish and Spanish. These will be followed by Hungarian, Welsh and Hindi – a real mix and a great success!
We still have space for storytellers in May and June! If you are interested in reading a story in your home language to Elementary School students, please get in touch with us ( or ), suggesting session(s) that would work for you and telling us the language in which you’d like to read. We’d be in touch with you from there.
Suggested dates and times:
- May 7, 15:00 – 15:30
- June 4, 15:00 – 15:30
We can be flexible with dates, so if you’d like to volunteer to read a story but would prefer a different day, please let us know.
We look forward to collaborating with you on this exciting initiative!
What’s the purpose?
- Sustained celebration of linguistic diversity & multilingualism in the FIS community
- Promote the value of languages other than English
- Provide students with the opportunity to engage with (their) home languages
- Promote international-mindedness among students through being exposed to different languages and stories from other cultures)
- Develop a love of languages and language learning among students
- Develop empathy for beginner language learners and language learning strategies, through immersion in a totally new language
- Bring the FIS community together
- Promote the importance of maintaining the home language
How does it work?
- Once per month at the FIS, somebody from the FIS community will read a short story aloud in their home language.
- Anyone from the FIS community will be able to sign up to read a story.
- Homeroom teachers can sign up their class to attend a home language storytelling session (usually one or two classes per session). The whole class can attend, including those who don’t speak the home language the story is told in, since the storyteller will summarise the story in English and provide visuals (e.g. show the pictures in the book) to support understanding of the story.
- Alternatively / additionally, part of a class or a group of students may attend the session.
Jessica Davey
Head of Department English as an Additional Language
Melinda Piehler
Early Years and Elementary School Librarian
