Punjabi

Implementation

Punjabi is lived

Every girl speaks Punjabi every school day.

A dedicated 10-minute oral Punjabi session each morning gives pupils a purposeful question or stimulus to discuss. Every pupil is expected to contribute, with responses becoming increasingly detailed and sophisticated as vocabulary, confidence and fluency develop. We believe these sessions make speaking habitual.

Girls learn to formulate ideas, extend sentences, listen to others and find the Punjabi they need to communicate what they actually want to say.

Punjabi continues beyond this dedicated session. Teachers use English and Punjabi interchangeably throughout appropriate parts of the school day, so pupils repeatedly hear familiar instructions, vocabulary and conversational language in meaningful contexts.

Punjabi is therefore not something pupils encounter and then put away - it is a language they use.

Punjabi is learned rigorously

For younger pupils, daily Gurmukhi phonics and systematic sound-symbol teaching establish the foundations of reading. Girls learn to distinguish sounds, connect them with Gurmukhi symbols and use this knowledge to begin decoding. Letter formation, spelling and early writing develop alongside reading.

As these foundations become secure, pupils move towards increasingly fluent reading and independent writing. Older pupils who still need support with early decoding continue to receive targeted teaching so that gaps do not become barriers to later literacy.

Every pupil also receives dedicated Punjabi reading and writing teaching each week.

Learning progresses from sounds, symbols and familiar vocabulary into sentences and increasingly connected texts. Girls read and write descriptions, responses, narratives and other age-appropriate pieces with growing accuracy and independence. We want pupils to move beyond copying and memorised phrases. They should increasingly be able to select vocabulary, construct sentences and communicate their own meaning.

Speaking, reading and writing reinforce one another. Language used orally becomes recognisable in print; reading introduces vocabulary and sentence structures that pupils can then use in speech and writing. Our curriculum draws on the Goldsmiths, University of London Curriculum Guide for Panjabi, while SHGS extends this through daily spoken Punjabi and our wider bilingual school environment.

Every pupil is expected to progress as a speaker, reader and writer. Where additional support is needed, teachers use modelling, repetition, visual cues, oral rehearsal and carefully structured steps without reducing the ambition of the language pupils encounter.

Punjabi is carried forward

Language is more than functional communication.

Girls encounter age-appropriate Punjabi literature, stories, poetry, proverbs and oral traditions, developing both their language and their appreciation of how Punjabi has been used to tell stories, express ideas and carry memory between generations.

They listen, retell, discuss, perform and increasingly read authentic Punjabi for themselves. Punjabi folk culture forms part of this wider understanding, helping pupils encounter the richness and variety of the communities in which Punjabi has developed and continues to thrive. We also value the different varieties of Punjabi spoken within our families and communities. Differences in accent, vocabulary and expression are treated with respect, while pupils are taught consistent conventions for literacy and increasingly formal communication.

Within a Sikh school, Gurmukhi also has particular significance. Pupils learn accurately that Punjabi is a language and Gurmukhi is a script. Becoming a confident Gurmukhi reader gives girls greater access not only to Punjabi literature but also to texts of significance within Sikh life.

Gurbani provides an important additional reason for pupils to become confident readers of Gurmukhi. We also teach them that the language of Gurbani is not simply modern Punjabi; it draws upon a rich range of linguistic traditions and is encountered more deeply through the school's Sikh learning.

This distinction matters. Punjabi teaching remains a broad and rigorous language curriculum in its own right.

Assessment

Assessment considers what pupils can increasingly do independently with Punjabi.

Teachers consider development in:

• listening and understanding;

• spoken vocabulary and fluency;

• increasingly sustained conversation;

• recognition and reading of Gurmukhi;

• reading fluency and comprehension;

• spelling and sentence construction;

• independent written communication.

Because pupils begin from different starting points, assessment helps teachers identify the particular next step each girl needs while maintaining ambitious expectations.

A confident home speaker who is beginning to read Gurmukhi needs something different from a strong reader who is reluctant to speak. Our teaching responds accordingly.

Impact

By the time girls leave SHGS, we want them to be able to move confidently between English and Punjabi, using each increasingly naturally and appropriately.

We want pupils to understand everyday spoken Punjabi and sustain meaningful conversations. They should read Gurmukhi with increasing fluency and communicate independently in writing.

They should encounter Punjabi not as isolated vocabulary or rehearsed phrases, but through conversation, literature, stories, culture and repeated everyday use. Our pupils should value the language spoken by families and communities while recognising Punjabi as a serious language of literacy, thought and study.

Above all, we want our girls to understand multilingualism as an asset: another way to communicate, think, read, write, connect with people and understand the world. At SHGS, Punjabi is not simply preserved, it is a language that is used, developed and carried forward.

Research-Informed Practice

Our approach is informed first by language-specific curriculum thinking and then by the wider evidence on multilingual education.

The Goldsmiths, University of London Curriculum Guide for Panjabi informs our progression in Punjabi oracy and literacy. SHGS builds on this through daily spoken-language practice and the wider use of Punjabi across school life.

Our approach also reflects the wider principle that multilingualism should be treated as an educational asset. UNESCO's global guidance on multilingual education recognises multilingualism as a normal part of human experience and supports educational approaches that value and develop pupils' languages.

Wider evidence on oral language also reinforces the importance of regular purposeful conversation, explicit vocabulary development, modelling and repeated opportunities for pupils to formulate and communicate ideas.

Selected References

Goldsmiths, University of London. Curriculum Guide for Panjabi.

Goldsmiths, University of London, Centre for Language, Culture and Learning. Research on multilingualism and bilingual learning.

UNESCO. Languages Matter: Global Guidance on Multilingual Education.

Education Endowment Foundation. Evidence on oral language development.