One school, 39 different languages!

London: Attention job seekers! A school in Britain is seeking multilingual volunteers to help teachers cope with 39 different languages spoken by its pupils.

Endeavour High School in Hull has seen a "meteoric" rise in pupils who don`t speak English as their first language -- many come from eastern Europe, but there are also children from Cambodia, the Congo and Taiwan, with Kurdish, Mandarin, Arabic, Polish and Farsi among the most common languages. In 2005, just six per cent of pupils at Endeavour had a foreign language as their primary tongue. But, today, these pupils account for a third, with many unable to utter a single word of English upon arrival, the `Daily Express` reported. Many parents of English-born children to try to find alternative schools. Chris Straker, the head of the 1,200 capacity school, has been forced to issue a desperate plea for public help. "We would love to recruit and recruit and recruit but that isn`t possible in this economic climate. The rate of change in Hull has been breathtaking. Five years ago you didn’t see a foreign face or hear a foreign language spoken in the city. Now it is very different. "It would be fantastic if people could come forward who have a foreign language and are equally strong in English, to come into the classrooms in a mentoring role," he was quoted as saying. PTI