TEACHERS have insisted foreign pupils and their parents are doing their best to learn English.

School leaders in south Essex were responding to a claim by immigration minister Phil Woolas, who said all immigrants must conconcentrate on learning English.

He said: “Why is it my little boy’s school has ‘Wel-come’ in 20 different languages? Immigrants must learn English.”

At Westborough Primary School, Westcliff, about a third of pupils speak Eng-lish as a second language.l Gerri Bennett, deputy headteacher, said: “The first step is to make people feel they are accepted and build trust.

“Once you create that climate, people integrate very quickly. People will make the next step once this first thing has been established.

“In our experience, parents who move to the country and don’t speak English learn very quickly and go on to university and get jobs.

“They want to integrate into the community.

“People want to hold on to their own culture as well and you can never take that away.

“I am Irish, I came over as an immigrant. I still like Irish music, but that does not mean I am not fully integrated.”

About a quarter of the school’s nativity play was acted by Muslim children, she said.

Mrs Bennett said children were taught English at the school and classmates were introduced to different languages in the playground.

“It can be very rewarding for other children,” she said. “It opens up the world for them.

“They are going to live in a multicultural and multilingual world.

“It also teaches them to be flexible and adaptive to new situations.”

The new Borders, Immigration and Citizen-ship Bill also says the minimum time taken to become a British citizen, and get access to benefits, will be six years.

Bridget Frampton, headteacher of Sacred Heart Primary School, Southend, where about a quarter of the pupils speak English as a second language, said: “It is easier for children to learn English when they start and they learn a lot from talking to other pupils.

“If they need extra help then we provide it, like we would for any other pupil.

“If they have learnt two languages then it is easier to learn a third.

“I think parents should be positively encouraged to learn English.

“Most do as it is in their interest, and in my experience I have found they are keen to do so.

“It should be encouraged by providing opportunities to learn.”

The plan is part of the Government’s Borders, Im-migration and Citizenship Bill, published in January.

Legal economic migrants will have to earn their passports by serving a five-year “probationary citizenship”.

During their probation, they will have to pay tax, learn English and stay clear of crime.