A Sense of Belonging…

TOBIN

DEPUTY PRESIDENT

One of the most challenging but rewarding tasks over the past year has been welcoming and managing newcomer pupils to our schools, namely displaced children from the Ukraine.

We as school Principals are familiar with enrolling and offering education to pupils whose first language is not English. For over two decades, we have enrolled varying numbers of non-Irish national children to our schools, as their parents and families relocated to Ireland. We all recall the influx of Polish in the early 2000s. Beautiful children and families who simply sought work and a better life in Ireland.

Like so many Irish primary schools, we serve a very diverse community. In our school, we now have 42% non-Irish national children from 23 countries. In 2011, we lost our shared permanent EAL teacher and must appeal each year for language support for almost half our pupil cohort. This year we have two EAL teachers, which enables us to offer quality support and English language lessons to these pupils, and indeed assist and settle newcomer pupils who arrive throughout the school year.

We currently have over a dozen Ukrainian pupils, each interestingly enough from a different region of their home country. We also have Olha Hnativ, a 24-year-old Ukrainian graduate teacher with excellent English and, since October, she has been working for 10 hours a week in our school. Olha has helped the girls to settle in, understand the systems in our school, and access their daily education. She is the bridge between them and their new school setting with of course the language barrier and cultural differences.

Olha, who has a Master’s Degree in Interpreting, taught children and adults in Kyiv before the invasion. She reports that the Ukrainian girls love school in Ireland. She says, ‘the school day is shorter in Ireland, with a more varied curriculum, including Music, Drama, PE and Art, whereas back in the Ukraine, school was mainly focussed on Maths and language learning.’

Each week as Principal, I meet the Ukrainian pupils and their teacher Olha. I am learning some Ukrainian phrases and practice them weekly with these fabulous brave young ladies. At our weekly meeting, we discuss customs in both our countries, and I am hugely impressed at their efforts in English language acquisition. They also tell me they love Tipperary School.

I would describe the Ukrainian people in Ireland as ambitious, determined people who want to make the best of a dreadful situation. They are delighted their children are learning English and they are most appreciative of our efforts to include their children.

The view among teachers is that the girls have settled in well and made friends; they seem especially strong at maths and enjoy art and sports.

‘In St. Josephs we don’t delve into children’s histories but allow them to discuss their experiences in their own time. When new girls start, we try not to talk about war and what they’ve been through. It is traumatic for them. We focus on building trust and confidence’, says Olha, our Ukrainian teacher. ‘Over here,’ she says, ‘students feel safe and part of a loving community’.

I applaud our schools for welcoming over 8,800 Ukrainians into our schools and giving them a real sense of belonging.

If you would like to get in touch with Louise in relation to this article, you can send her an email at louisetobin16@gmail.com

Oide is formally launching on 1st September. See your weekly E-scéal for key updates.