Tools to help build a community for learning
You will now read through a selection of resources made by IRC to help you welcome new students into your community. You can click on each one to learn more.
Being a Buddy Resource Pack [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
As mentioned in the previous unit, IRC UK has a mini training programme for teachers to use with their students to prepare them to be effective buddies.
These tasks are available in a range of languages and subjects and can help parents with limited English be involved in their child’s schooling when they first arrive.
As a country with several annual events where fireworks are used, it is important that we acknowledge these loud banks and explosions could be triggering for some newcomer refugee students. Here is a fun activity to introduce them to these events to help prepare them and reduce the chance of retraumatising them.
This is a useful guide for students about hate crime and their personal safety.
Supporting Youth Affected by Hate Crime
This is a useful guide for school staff who may be supporting a student after experiencing a hate crime.
To better get to know the important events your new students celebrate. Send home this survey (or a translated version).
After reading through these tools and resources, take a look at the following case study. Using different strategies than you used in the first case study, choose three strategies which you believe would be support this specific family.
Task 15: Case Study – Viktoria from Bashtanka, Ukraine
Viktoria is the mother of a child in your class. She has called the school to complain as she isn’t getting regular updates about how they are getting on.
She explains that in Ukraine, children get homework from every class every day, so parents know exactly what they are working on and can check their work at home.
Her children are also asked to sit on the carpet which in Ukraine is quite a rude thing that children would get in trouble for.
Her older child is in Year 6, and she says she hasn’t received enough information about his upcoming SATs. She is very stressed.
How could you support this family to become a part of the community?
| Chosen technique | How I would use it | How it could help |
Comment
This case study highlights how education systems differ vastly across the world and aspects of schooling which may seem obvious in the UK may be new to many parents.
Likewise, things that they expect from school and teachers back home may not be possible or part of the education system here. It's vital that parents have channels to speak with schools to ask questions, voice concerns and keep up to date with what is going on.
Helpful expectation sheets can be made and translated and given to parents, induction meetings and drop ins can also be excellent opportunities for new parents and teachers to get on the same page when it comes to newcomer refugee student's education.
The war in Ukraine has drastically disrupted millions of lives, displacing people and creating unprecedented humanitarian needs. As of today, 12.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Since February 2022, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been working in Ukraine alongside local partners to deliver life-saving support to people affected by the war, helping them survive, recover, and regain control of their future. If you'd like to find out more about IRC's work in Ukraine visit the website.
How else can you learn about and celebrate culture in school?
