There are several native Arabic speakers at the school and they helped today. Here is student from Syrian now in Year 6 having a conversation with a classmate - a few easy phrases that the native English speaker learned in minutes.
We had our Arabic language postcards to hand out - and we realised that some children had been practising overnight with siblings we had worked with yesterday.
It was wonderful to see the children's enthusiasm - and eagerness to learn.
A valuable morning at Falmouth Primary School in west Cornwall this morning with the wonderful Rawda Alater, who spoke about her life in Syria and her subsequent experience in the UK. She answered children's questions - and even taught a bit of Arabic.
In at least two classes there were Arabic speakers. In one, a child from Saudi Arabia, spoke no English at all and was delighted to be able to chat with Rawda. As the rest of us listened, we realised what it must feel like to be 'the one' who doesn't understand. It's a strange and disconcerting experience - and one that non-English speaking children must often come up against when they first arrive here.
Rawda spoke about the difference between schools in this country and in Syria. In Syria, children don't have hot dinners at school. The opposite - they take a packed lunch of flat bread and maybe cheese. Houses don't have curtains and carpets. It's hot. Life is different.
Rawda explained how she felt when she arrived as a refugee in Truro from Lebanon, where she'd been living for five years since she left the war in Syria in 2010.
She was afraid to open the door, she said, because she didn't understand a word of English.
Together this morning we learned how to say hello, how are you! And with the help of Arabic speaking pupils, wrote a few words in Arabic on the flip chart.
Mirabela from Bucharest, who has been working with us since before the pandemic, led the assembly. And she had two willing young helpers who had arrived at the school from Romania just a couple of years earlier, themselves without any English....
We left language postcards at the school so that children could take them home to practise the phrases that they had learned.
A damp but exciting afternoon in Truro, west Cornwall, on Wednesday 24 August. Overseas nurses from the Royal Cornwall Hospital met up with Penzance-based photographer Mike Newman for a photography workshop with a difference. The nurses - here to provide an essential boost to hospital staff - had a unique and much-needed chance to meet and interact with local people - and learn some new skills at the same time.
After a few top tips from Mike and a cream tea at the Hall for Cornwall, Michael Apas, Chloe Mickelson and Ace Gonzales– all from the Philippines – ventured out despite the rain into the market to meet traders, chat and take photographs of them and their stalls.
“It’s a nice link up with nursing,” said Michael afterwards. “Nursing is not just a science, there’s art in it as well. And the same with photography - there's science alongside the art.
‘’This is something that I also learned when I was doing Interpretive Phenomenological research back home: It is that a picture could resound meaningful messages that is hard to explain. Often, we have plethora of experiences in line with our work and some of those experiences needed not to be explained but to be felt.’’
‘’This Photography session is a good avenue wherein we could enhance our ways of translating interactions to a deeper and meaningful level. Isn’t it amazing that we are all complete strangers coming from a different background and perspective, but we are unified with art? It only goes to show the power of photography and how it becomes a unifying force that could bridge the gap, and breaks the barriers of culture, language, and ethnicity.’’
Workshop leader Mike Newman agreed and was highly impressed by the results.
“I wanted you to meet people you might not normally meet,” he said to the nurses afterwards. "But also, for them to meet people they would not normally meet and chat to – you!”
There will be more photography workshops this autumn and photographs taken will be displayed in an exhibition. The workshops are part of our I Packed This Myself project - breaking down barriers and increasing understanding of the vital role played by people born overseas in the Cornish economy – and in particular in the health service.
In Penzance, Cornwall, today (Monday 4 April 2022) with Mirabela originally from Bucharest, Romania, delivering an assembly to a hall full of children. The theme? The importance of welcoming people from overseas – with different cultures, backgrounds and languages – to our communities. And encouraging empathy and acceptance.
Mirabela, who now lives in Helston, arrived with her family in the UK five years ago. Her seven-year-old son spoke only two words of English ('red' and 'cat') when he started Primary School locally.
So many of the children today asked questions about how this might feel. Was he scared? How did he cope? Was he excited? How did he make friends? How could things have been made easier for him?
This is part of our Cornwall Council-funded project I PACKED THIS MYSELF, increasing understanding of the many people from overseas arriving in Cornwall to work and play an important role in the local economy.
And - as Mirabela remarked before we started - whoever would have imagined that there would be a war in Europe in 2022. And that we would be welcoming refugees from Ukraine.
In Penzance, Cornwall, today (Monday 4 April 2022) with Mirabela originally from Bucharest, Romania, delivering an assembly to a hall full of children. The theme? The importance of welcoming people from overseas – with different cultures, backgrounds and languages – to our communities. And encouraging empathy and acceptance.
Mirabela, who now lives in Helston, arrived with her family in the UK five years ago. Her seven-year-old son spoke only two words of English ('red' and 'cat') when he started Primary School locally.
So many of the children today asked questions about how this might feel. Was he scared? How did he cope? Was he excited? How did he make friends? How could things have been made easier for him?
This is part of our Cornwall Council-funded project I PACKED THIS MYSELF, increasing understanding of the many people from overseas arriving in Cornwall to work and play an important role in the local economy.
And - as Mirabela remarked before we started - whoever would have imagined that there would be a war in Europe in 2022. And that we would be welcoming refugees from Ukraine.
A gallery of cardboard cut-out suitcases created by children at Parc Eglos Primary School in Helston, who attended our assemblies and workshops in January. They thought hard about the things that they would take with them, if they had to go on a long journey.
We thought it would be particularly relevant in view of our work in Cornwall on I PACKED THIS MYSELF - encouraging understanding of all the people from overseas who play such a vital role in the local economy.
The concert was led by Michelle Hromin, a Croatian-American clarinettist who played in both Babylon, Our Own by Aleksandra Vrebalov and 2 Suitcases by Mary Kouyoumdjian.
Anew
voice joined us at very short notice - Hillary Tan, originally from
Kuala Lumpur, who came to study at University in Falmouth four years ago
when she was 20.
She has indeed made a long journey to change her
life and pursue a dream. She studied Business and Digital Marketing -
and dance. Her long-term aim is to set up her own dance school in
Cornwall.
Hillary decided to come to the UK as both her parents
had studied here. She had heard that Falmouth was a particularly
creative university: she is also keen to develop her dance certification
- and this originated in the UK so it made sense to study here.
She answered questions this afternoon about a whole range of things.
What she found difficult in Cornwall? The weather!
To
what she missed? Malaysian food. She found English cooking quite
limited and didn't know how to cook at the start. "My mum wanted me to
study. She said she would do the cooking so I had time."
What was hard? Leaving her family.
"In Asian cultures we're really close. I grew up with being cared by my grandparents. Not seing them for a long time is hard. But at least I can see them online."
Hillary said she had not experienced any racism, even though she found that there were not many Asian students in Falmouth.
The best thing about Cornwall? Picking up sea glass at the beach and the scenery.
The worst thing? The lack of variety in food.
Hillary kindly offered to give advice to any students thinking of studying abroad - or even in Falmouth!
An exciting day for us today at Parc Eglos Primary School in Helston, Cornwall as we shot a short film with Penzance-based photographer Mike Newman about our work on migration and all the issues around it. We ran assemblies and workshops at the school last month and even taught a little Romanian with the help of Mirabela Robatzchi (Mirabela, originally from Bucharest, is now living in Helston with her family.) We left behind cut-out cardboard suitcases for children to create and imagine what they would take with them if they had to leave home to make a long journey.
The results are stunning, as we saw today when we returned to see what the children had created. Dance teacher Jo Simms worked with the children to stage an amazing modern dance reflecting the emotions, hopes and fears of people who make long journeys to change their lives.
Watch this space for more about the film.
Very good to see 'A Factory Suitcase' by the artist Ross Tibbles once more on display. It's now at Parc Eglos School in Helston, Cornwall
(left). Ross created this suitcase more than ten years ago when he was a
3D design student at University College, Falmouth. It's been on
display several times over the years as we've continued work on migration and related issues.
It
has an intriguing message. Ross was inspired to create it after he
worked in a cheesecake factory in Devon one summer. Most of his fellow
workers spoke little English and he suddenly realised how it felt not to
be able to communicate through language. He felt extremely isolated.
The suitcase on display at Penair School, Truro
“Workers from overseas often find themselves all alone, far away from family and friends whom they have left behind to try and earn more money than they could do at home," he said at the time. “Often, they speak little English and cannot understand what is being said to them - or make themselves understood."
Ross is now a self-employed graphic designer working across a mix of media and specialising in marketing, advertising, stationery and websites. He also does publication design and helped to start up The Moorlander, a newspaper reporting on Dartmoor and surrounding areas. His portfolio site is arosstibblesdesign.com
Our work on migration is aimed at breaking down prejudice and increasing understanding of the role played by workers from overseas in the Cornish economy. It's called I PACKED THIS MYSELF and is funded by Cornwall Council via Inclusion Cornwall.
This display will be at the school for the next few weeks. On Friday 4 February there'll be an Open Day for parents.
And on Thursday 27 January, well before that, we'll be there to film a dance created by students about the experience of migration - in particular leaving home and loved ones behind. They were rehearsing today as we set up and even at this early stage I had to wipe a tear from my eye!
Not only did we manage to master simple phrases like 'Hello', Goodbye' and 'How are you?'. We moved on to 'Thank you' (a long word in Romanian), 'Please' and - very impressively - 'How are you feeling?'
The boy in Year 6 who suggested this really put himself in the shoes of a newcomer to the school without any English. Very impressive.
We had some good feedback, too, from the lovely dance teacher who visits the school every week. She also - independently - runs ballet classes in Helston and on Monday evening (after our first visit to the school) some of her young students greeted her with a little bit of Romanian - 'Hello!'
What a good start.
This morning (11 January 2022) we worked with Year 4 students, first an assembly with the full cohort of 120 then two separate classrooms where we learned a bit of Romanian with the help of Mirabela Robatzchi from Bucharest. Mirabela and her family are now making a life for themselves in Helston but when they arrived their young son only spoke two words of English ('red' and 'cat').
Before we practised conversations in Romanian - a few simple phrases to break the ice - students asked lots of questions. How was it for Mirabela's son, aged only seven when he arrived? Was he sad to leave Romania? Did he make friends quickly?
Mirabela said the teachers at his school drew pictures to help him communicate - if he had a headache - or felt ill. He did feel scared - and isolated. Language helps such a lot.
Tomorrow: Years 5 and 6.
This is all part of work to increase understanding and to break down prejudice against the thousands of workers from overseas who play such a vital role in the local economy. It's funded by Cornwall Council via Inclusion Cornwall and is called I PACKED THIS MYSELF.
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| Mirabela in the classroom |
Mirabela's son had started school in Cornwall at the age of 7 without any English. The only two words he knew were 'red' and 'cat'. How it would have helped if his new schoolfriends knew just a word or two of Romanian, Mirabela said.
So we started with a few simple words: Hello, how are you? Ok! Yes. No. Thank you. Goodbye....
And it worked! We were so impressed by the students, their questions and interest - and, most importantly, the way they understood how important it was to try and communicate.
This was part of our work to break down prejudice against people from overseas who play such a vital role in the local economy. It's funded by Cornwall Council via Inclusion Cornwall.
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| Setting up in the school hall beforehand |
