A project to help new arrivals to Cardiff with little or no knowledge of English integrate into schools in the city will be celebrated next week.
Over the past two years, Cardiff Council has worked together with Warsaw City Council on a project to give children and their families of other nationalities moving to Wales or Poland a helping hand to settle in their new schools.
Funded by the European Union through the British Council’s Comenius Regio programme which encourages local authorities throughout the continent to form partnerships, the project has involved the Council’s Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS) and education officers, Race Equality First, Michaelston Community College and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School working with the education authority in Warsaw, two Polish schools and an arts organisation.
As funding for the project now comes to an end, a conference to celebrate and showcase what has been accomplished by the partners in the last two years will take place in Cardiff on Tuesday June 28.
The two teams from Wales and Poland have listened to the views of pupils and parents who have made the move to a new country, worked with families and teachers on school-based inclusion audits and undertaken presentations at a series of teacher training events.
By working together, the partnership has produced a welcome pack for new arrivals to Wales and Poland in 11 languages which provides children and parents with basic information on the school admission process and any other useful information they may need to know before starting at their new school, for example, how to get to school and what the uniform consists of.
As part of the project, a Parent Support Group has been established in Cardiff which aims to encourage parents from across the city, whose home language is not English or Welsh, to volunteer to help new arrivals by way of a quick chat on the phone or a cup of coffee, to share advice on settling into a new place, answer any questions or allay any fears about entering our school system. Any one interested in joining the Parent Support Group should contact Emily Daly by emailing [email protected]
Earlier this month, a 22 -strong group from Cardiff including six pupils from both Michaelston Community College and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr visited Warsaw to take part in the end of project conference.
The Cardiff end of project conference will take place at the Future Inn in Cardiff Bay on Tuesday June 28 when staff from 15 city schools, pupils and parents will join education officers from both Cardiff and Warsaw’s local authority in celebrating the project’s success. Cardiff’s Chief Education Officer Chris Jones will open the conference before a series of morning presentations and afternoon surgeries with partners who have been involved in the project. The materials produced as part of the project will be launched at the event.
Executive Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, Cllr Freda Salway, said: “Cardiff is a cosmopolitan city and we have always provided a warm welcome to people of many nationalities wishing to make their home here. This project has brought together people from across the city to ensure that new arrivals have all the support they need to feel comfortable while settling into our schools.
“While the project funding is now coming to an end, this is by no means the end of the project but just the beginning as the new materials produced will be a valuable resource for families and the Parent Support Group can provide a friendly ear. It’s been a great experience for everyone involved in this project to share best practice and exchange ideas with our partners at Warsaw City Council.”
