Praising the surprise move in a letter to The Evening Telegraph, headteacher of Fulbridge Primary School Iain Erskine called for the British Government to put more money into supporting the growing numbers of migrant children arriving from all over Europe.

The school, in Keeton Road, New England, Peterborough, has seen the number of Eastern European children jump from two to 100 in the last two years, with 32 different languages being spoken.

What do you think about the situation in Peterborough's schools?
Comment below, email us: news@peterboroughtoday.co.uk or telephone the newsdesk 01733 555111.
-------------------------------------

He said: "This mix of nationalities has resulted in all children having a greater understanding of different backgrounds and beliefs. There is a wonderful tolerance and understanding within our school community.

"But due to the lack of funding from central Government, we have also faced some challenges.

"We are part of an initiative organised and paid for by the Slovakian government and at no cost to us, have just had three Slovakian teachers who teach English in Slovakia join us for two months.

"It seems a pity that our own government cannot be more creative and supportive to their schools and engage in such a project themselves."

Before the Slovakian teachers arrived, there were just two teaching assistants who had knowledge of different languages – Polish and Portuguese.

Mr Erskine said: "Seven Slovakian children have joined the school in the last few days and when they heard the teachers talking in their language, their faces lit up."

Some lessons are also being conducted in Slovak, so British children get an idea of how their counterparts struggle with the language barrier when they first arrive in Peterborough. The Opening the Gates scheme has also brought a Slovakian teacher to Gunthorpe Primary and The Beeches Primary in Beech Avenue in the city centre. Beeches headteacher Tim Smith said 17 languages were currently spoken at the school, with 40 per cent of the 515 pupils being of Eastern European origin.

Mr Smith said: "For the last 20 years the school has been set up to accept children from migrant families because this area is often the first place they settle.

"In the '50s, it was Italians and Polish. In the '60s and '70s, it was Indian and Pakistani. Now it is people from Eastern Europe, as well as children from all over the world.

"We have vibrant classrooms where visual learning and teaching key vocabulary is important."

The move comes as new figures revealed that a startling 1,120 migrant children have turned the city's primary and secondary schools into a world of nations.

Freedom of Information figures obtained by The Evening Telegraph reveal that pupils from 39 different countries were enrolled in Peterborough schools between September 2006 and January 2008.

The overwhelming majority came from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal and Lithuania, but others have travelled to Peterborough from countries including Afghanistan and Madagascar.

It means an array of languages are spoken in classrooms, from Pushto to Swahili, and Greek to Urdu. Assistant director of learning and standards in Peterborough City Council's education department Mel Collins revealed that 320 new arrivals had enrolled in Peterborough primaries and 100 in secondaries since September 2007.

She said: "We can't expect the number of new arrivals to reduce in the short-term and there may be another 200 to 250 by the end of the school year."

The council's director of children's services , Ben Ticehurst, said: "The diversity in our schools is one of our strengths. However, there are clearly challenges in terms of capacity, movement of children and, of course, money. As an authority we are lobbying for fair funding to meet the needs of all our communities.

"Schools continue to find innovative and effective ways of dealing with new arrivals and I know that many headteachers find pupils eager and quick to learn."

In Wednesday's ET we look at the wider impact on the city's education system.

Factfile: school rolls
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The Evening Telegraph reveal that 428 migrant children enrolled in 53 Peterborough schools in the 2007 autumn term, 272 in the secondary system and 156 in the primary system. They were absorbed by all 10 local authority maintained secondary schools and 43 out of 57 primary schools.
The 428 pupils speak 35 different languages.

Secondary school arrivals:

• Ken Stimpson - 42


• Stanground College - 42


• St John Fisher - 21


• Bushfield Community Coll' - 13


• The Voyager School - 13


• Orton Longueville - 9


• Hampton College - 8


• Jack Hunt - 5


• Arthur Mellows Village Coll' - 2


• King's School - 1

Primary schools (Top 10):

• The Beeches - 51


• St Thomas More - 28


• Dogsthorpe Junior - 19


• Abbotsmede Primary - 18


• Fulbridge Primary - 14


• West Town Primary - 14


• Gladstone Primary - 11


• Welland Primary - 9


• Dogsthorpe Infant - 8


• Newark Hill Primary - 8

Languages spoken by 2007 autumn term arrivals in primary and secondary schools:
Polish - 115,
Slovak - 69,
Lithuanian - 53,
Portuguese - 46,
Urdu - 22,
Pashto/Pakhto - 22,
Panjabi - 13,
Persian/Farsi - 9,
Czech - 8,
Kurdish - 8,
Other - 8, Italian - 5, Shona - 5, Chinese - 4, Gujurati - 4, Hungarian - 3, Nepali - 3, Tswana/Setswana - 3, Arabic - 2, Ewe - 2, French - 2, Hindi - 2, Korean - 2, Latvian - 2, Manding/Malinke - 2, Russian - 2, Turkish - 2, Akan - 1, Bengali - 1, Ndebele - 1, Spanish - 1, Tamil - 1, Telugu - 1, Tagalog/Filipino - 1, Xhosa - 1, Zulu - 1.