Schools welcome almost 900 refugee students
Staff and classmates help in building community, language co-ordinator says
Almost 900 refugee students attend school in Saskatoon’s two major school divisions, and officials say welcoming them and their families to the city has been a unique learning experience for students and staff.
The public division has 565 students who are refugees, while the Catholic division has 304. With a combined overall student population of 42,356, this means 869 students — more than two per cent of the K-12 student population — hold refugee status based on last year’s enrolment numbers.
Public division staff said the student population gets more diverse every year, and students are some of the best ambassadors for newcomers.
“The classrooms today are not always predominantly Canadian students,” said Laurie Anderson, an English as an Additional Language consultant at the division’s newcomer student centre.
“Some of them certainly would be, but new families are often very surprised with the diversity of our classrooms … so in most classrooms, there would be students from other countries, students that are still learning English.”
While the division does offer newcomer students and their families supports — like the opportunity for a school tour and an introduction to their classroom teacher before joining the classroom environment — certain aspects of a student’s social and cultural education will be supported by fellow students alongside staff, said Shauna Tilbury, the division’s co-ordinator for English as an Additional Language.
“If you’ve ever been to another country and tried to survive in that language, it’s difficult to learn everything in the first week. I think that our newcomers learn things alongside their peers,” she said, noting parents and students will educate each other on their own Canadian experiences through “dinner table conversations.”
“It’s impossible to learn about any culture in a day, or a week, or a half an hour,” she said. “Just like we want our students who have been born here to learn about cultures around them, we hope that our newcomer students learn about the cultures that they’re surrounded by as well.”
The Catholic division has fewer refugee students, but superintendent of education Scott Gay said the needs of each student and family varies widely, touching on the importance of getting to know them individually.
“One strategy won’t work in all situations,” he said. “Because each of the refugee families ... they have a different experience of what it means to be a refugee. Some would have experience d far more trauma than others, so it’s really important for us — as it is with all of our students — to know each student individually, who they are and what will best support them as a learner and as an individual.”
Students from more than 40 countries are studying in Saskatoon. Data from the Catholic division indicates its largest population of refugee students hails from Iraq, while the largest number of refugee students in the public division hails from the African country of Eritrea.
Both divisions work closely with the Saskatoon Open Door Society through its Settlement Support Workers in Schools (SSWIS) program. Demand for the program continues to grow. It started with one employee during its inception in 2004-05; that number has jumped to about 19 staff today.
Ali Abukar, executive director of the Saskatoon Open Door Society, said the organization provides programs for newcomer and refugee youth, but noted one place newcomer children develop a strong sense of community is among their classmates.
“We’re very grateful (to) the community — and especially with the school divisions — in working with us in terms of welcoming these new families into our schools …. That is where you develop community,” he said.
Abukar noted, however, that integration runs in both directions and the society hopes students from Saskatoon also learn about the diverse cultures around them.
Some have experienced far more trauma than others, so it’s important for us to know each student individually.