'Children here are free to be who they are'
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- Assanato Embalo's family left Guinea-Bissau when she was six.
She is one of Northern Ireland's 17,400 "newcomer pupils" - who may have been born outside the UK and do not initially speak the same language as their teacher.
Assanato's school, St Patrick’s College in Dungannon, has one of the highest rates of newcomer pupils in Northern Ireland.
“Initially it was hard to get settled in because of language barriers, but now it’s like my second home," she said.
“I’ve learned English and passed my GCSEs and I play Gaelic football, it’s one of favourite sports.”
There are 684 pupils at the County Tyrone school, with 51% classified as newcomer pupils.
Dungannon's population has seen an increase in the number of families from outside the UK in the last 20 years, largely due to increased employment in local food processing and engineering firms.
Dungannon now has sizeable East Timorese, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian and African communities.
“Northern Ireland is a more multicultural society now," said Catherine McHugh, St Patrick’s principal.
“Our school is a bit of a microcosm of what Dungannon town now looks like.”
Video journalist: Niall McCracken