School’s multicultural excellence extolled- Narre Warren South P-12 College received the Governor’s Award for excellence in multicultural education. Co-ordinator EAL Yasar Duyal and Principal Rob Casa

NARRE Warren South P-12 College received the Governor’s Award for excellence in multicultural education. The award was the second in three years, and acknowledged the school for its excellent multicultural education programs for parents and students.
Yashar Duyal, English as an Additional Language (EAL) co-ordinator, said the school had a number of programs which catered to refugees and people who did not speak English as a first language.
One of the programs is a refugee mothers’ group which has been running since 2009.
“In partnership with AMES (Adult Migrant Education Services), our school runs English language classes and a variety of workshops and seminars for refugee mothers,” Mr Duyal said.
“Some of the workshops run included topics like domestic violence, citizenship, healthy lifestyle and Australian legal system. In addition, parents meet the facilities and staff when they are at school for these sessions twice a week for the total of six hours.”
Mr Duyal said in partnership with Monash University, Narre Warren South P-12 College also had after hours learning support program three times a week for refugee students and students who study English as an additional language.
The school also has an intensive transition program for newly arrived students from refugee background.
Mr Duyal said Cambridge University Press might publish a Year 7-8 English textbook, an anthology of short stories the students wrote about being a migrant or a refugee, with all sales from the book in combination with money raised during the school’s Multicultural Day going to a school in Kabul, Afghanistan.