Team assembled for Syrian refugee students at Winnipeg School Division
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2016 (2988 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Syrian kids arriving for that first anxious day of school will soon have four more smiling faces waiting to help them.
Winnipeg School Division is assembling a special team of three teachers and a social worker, psychologist, or other clinician to work with Syrian refugee children and their families.
“We’re hoping to have this team operational next week. We’re going to go to where the newcomers go to school,” Rob Riel, director of aboriginal education and newcomer services, said Thursday.
Riel said the division has posted the jobs both internally and externally. The division would prefer to assign experienced teachers to the team, but is also wary of disrupting those teachers’ classrooms this far into the school year. Anyone replacing existing teachers who join the team, or any external candidates making the team, would get a term contract through June 30.
When families arrive at a school, Riel said, there are specialist staff on hand who are working with newcomer families, while the new team will assist school staff in helping the kids get settled. They’ll have space in Hugh John Macdonald School as a base, but will work at any school where they’re needed on any given day.
“This is not new to Winnipeg School Division — we’ve been doing this for decades. We’re doing this for volume,” he said.
Riel said other school divisions in which Syrian refugee families settle will also be creating similar teams, funded by money for newcomer assistance which Premier Greg Selinger announced last month.
So far, Riel said, WSD has about 60 students spread among 15 to 20 schools.
“They’ve touched around 15 to 20 schools. That’s a pretty exciting thing for the school,” he said. “It tends to be a single family.
“Families are quite large — the average family has 5.6 kids. the majority are 14 and under.”
Riel said that there are rumours of large housing units becoming available imminently, possibly even entire apartment buildings, which could produce a sudden large influx into one local school.
“We know what schools have space; we’ll have the classrooms available,” he promised.
Depending on how many students arrive at once, the four-person team could split up and go to separate schools, Riel said. The contracts would run through June 30, but education officials expect the province to extend the support program through at least the 2016-2017 school year as refugees continue to arrive.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca