If my child does not learn to read in English until the first grade, will s/he catch up with students in a regular school?

Yes. Reading skills are transferable between Western languages and so those learned in French / Spanish transfer to English, and many (such as prediction, recognising references to prior information) are transferable between Western languages and Arabic / Chinese. As we use the “Big Book” approach in the Foundation class, and because the students are able to differentiate between the sub-skills associated with each language, they quickly and easily read in English as well as in their other first language programme.

In fact, our Foundation year students learn to read and many become independent readers; all our students are independent readers by the end of semester one of J1. The amazing thing is that they learn the skills of reading in a non-English Language A, they in effect "teach themselves" to read in English by transferring those skills.