Syrian refugee kids will get by with help from new friends

"Usuallythe first few months in Canadawe call 'the honeymoon.'

"Everything is great," says BillTorrens, Assistant Principal in theHamilton-WentworthDistrict SchoolBoard's Leadership and Learning department.

'They begin to feel safe and then culture shock happens."

The board has several ways of preparing schools and teachers, depending on the circumstances at each school.

At schools where there is already a significantimmigrant or refugee population, there are programs in place and bothstaff and students are experienced in helping newcomers.

Hess Street School in downtown Hamilton is one such school. It has a large multicultural population of students, many who have recently come to Canada as refugees.

Fitting in and learning

The school's ALPHAprogram offers junior and intermediate students who have limited or large gaps intheir education a chance to accelerate their learning.

The12 children in Jackson's classroom are grade six to eight students who havecome to Canada in the past four years.

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Unlike ESL students who are literate in theirfirst language, the ALPHA class is considered an English Literacy Development(ELD) program.

To help develop that, Jackson's students take music, physical education and otherrotary subjects with their mainstream class, but English math and social studies aretaught in ALPHA.

He says Hess Street's diverse population means students are verywelcoming of newcomers.

Grade 8student Mya Aye's family came to Hamilton when she was six afterfleeing Burma and spending time in a refugee camp.

Aye who now speaks near-perfectEnglish says when she first arrived in Canada she was scared, but her peers helpedher adjust quickly.

"A lot of people showed me around. They helped me a lot," Aye says. "I didn't feellike I was the only one that needed some help."

Inside the classroom, the ALPHA program relies heavily on visual teaching materialand uses learning tools like duel language books and dictionaries with pictures.

"You have to become oral to learn a language.

"So if you're going to become literate inEnglish they have to start speaking in English," says Jackson. We get them talking asmuch as we can."

ESL and social workers help

For children attending schools that have a smaller migrant population,Torrenssays ESL teachers play an important role.

"Kids who are beginners of English will often be supported by an ESLteacher in the regular classroom of 20 or 25 kids or they might comeout into a small group," saysTorrens. "It might only be 20 minutes aday but it's a touchstone. It really depends on how many kids thereare and what their needs are."

There are social workers attached to each school who help migrant andrefugee studentneeds outside the classroom.

Torrenssays the boardalso relies on external groups like Wesley Urban Ministries and theImmigrants Working Centre to help families of students who are havingtrouble adjusting to their new life.

Wesley Urban Ministries, the city's lead agency for refugee settlement,has met with the board's ESL teachers twice in the last two weeks to provide some cultural background informationabout the expected Syrian newcomers.

"We really work hard to try to educate our teachers in schools so theycan work in a sensitive way around that," saysTorrens.

Torrens says he doesn't know how many Syrian children will register, but the boardexpects the first wave of students to enroll by the time school is back in session inJanuary.