Supporting Newcomer Students and Families is Global Citizenship in Action

“Global citizenship” became vision in action in the 2004–2005 school year, when the Louis Riel School Board recognized that innovative programming needed to respond to newcomer students and their families. Five years later, the Newcomer Family Reception Centre meets the diverse needs of newcomer students with equally diverse programs. 

Located in the René Deleurme Centre, which houses other innovative divisional programs, the Newcomer Family Reception Centre provides reception and assessment services to newcomer students and families and professional support to the schools that welcome them. Of approximately 14,400 students enrolled in LRSD schools in 2008–2009, 783 needed to acquire English as an Additional Language (EAL), with 296 of that number new to our Division—a 25 per cent increase over 2007–2008. 

All families who are new to LRSD and who have arrived in Canada during the past four years receive invitations to visit the Centre, where an EAL teacher conducts the initial assessment of children’s language and academic skills and records information about their school histories. The Centre also links newcomer families to important resources in their neighbourhood schools and communities—a Settlement Worker meets with parents or guardians to discuss information about their new community.  

Many newcomer students and families are profoundly affected by their direct experiences of sustained conflict, violence, and loss. Several schools in LRSD embrace the complex needs of increasing numbers of newcomer students with compassion and dedicated professionalism—and the Louis Riel School Board counts among its most important priorities that newcomer students and their families view the Canadian “mosaic” as a promising new stage of their global citizenship. 

For more information about this innovative support for diverse learning needs, visit the RDC website: www.lrsd.net/schools/RDC