Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney

Abstract

Rarely do refugee students entering Australian schools possess the multiple forms of social, linguistic and cultural capital that are taken for granted in mainstream classrooms. While refugees of high-school age are assisted initially through Intensive English Centres (IECs), the transition from IECs to mainstream classrooms presents substantial challenges. This paper outlines the perceived impacts of a partnership program known as Refugee Action Support (RAS) that assists secondary school students, predominantly African humanitarian refugees, as they seek to make the transition from IECs to mainstream settings. Implemented by the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, the University of Western Sydney and the NSW Department of Education and Training, the program is based on school-based tutoring centres that use pre-service teachers as tutors. The paper explores the perceived effects on refugee students participating in RAS from the perspectives of teachers who assist in the coordination of the program at the various school sites.

Keywords:

• disadvantaged students
• refugees
• school
• support program
• tutoring centres

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Florence McCarthy and the reviewers for comments and suggestions on this paper. This research was funded by the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Notes

1. The training was developed and implemented by Eric Brace from the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

2. Those involved in this research include Tania Ferfolja, Florence McCarthy, Margaret H. Vickers, Loshini Naidoo and Amy Hawker.

3. The ESL Scales assists teachers to record students’ learning progress in English as a Second Language.

4. This was devised by Eric Brace at the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

5. NAPLAN is the acronym for the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, which students undertake in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

6. Students receive an N-Award if they fail to fulfil assessment requirements as required by the NSW School Certificate.