New mobile unit set to help refugees in Winnipeg School Division

Winnipeg's largest school division says it is ready for an influx of more Syrian refugee children.

So far, the division has 80 new students and isexpecting that volume to increase in the coming weeks. Just how many are coming willdependon where the families find housing.

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"Welcome Place and N.E.E.D.S( Newcomers Employment and Education Development Services) are at full capacity plus and looking for housing. We believe a high percentage of these childrenwill be coming to WSD. When they do, we are ready to go," said Rob Riel, the director of Aboriginal education and newcomer services for WSD.

New mobile unit to help

Riel saidmore students meanshiring more staff. A new mobile unit made up of threeteachers and clinical support staff such as a psychologist, social worker, reading specialist and speech pathologistwill be on hand to help. The unit will go to a school where there is an influx of several students.

"Let's say two families come in to the same school with 10 children. If we have 10 coming in one one day spread out among the grades, the mobile unit will come in and start planning with some of the teachers," said Riel, adding "members of the mobile team would go to the school and support one teacher and stay for a little bit and the team would then move on to another location."

In addition to hiring more staff once the fundingcomes through,RielsaidWSDis alsoprepared to open up more classrooms. He said the biggest challengeis finding a good space for students to learn and having them seamlessly integrated into the classroom. He's pleased with how the refugee childrenhave transitioned into the school system.

"We are excited and ready for a whole bunch of new students we can learn from and they can learn from us. It will be very exciting. It's gone very well so far. We are looking forward to meeting new people and having them be part of our community," he said.