Support for Refugees
Refugee Week
Refugee Week is regularly observed in many schools early in Term Four. For further information regarding Refugee Week, schools should visit the web site of the Refugee Council of Australia (http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au).
The information on this page is divided into the sections:
- Ideas for local school involvement
- Refugee Week Resource Kit
- The Languages and Multicultural Resources Centre (LMERC)
Ideas for local school involvement
All schools are encouraged to involve their staff, students and communities in activities to raise awareness of refugee week through the school curriculum, extra-curricular activities and neighbourhood or network events during the week. In addition to classroom activities associated with Refugee Week, schools may wish to consider:
- choosing children’s and young adult literature and picture storybooks with a focus on refugees
- selecting units of work from Racism, No Way! (http://www.racismnoway.com.au). The website includes class lessons on migration and refugees. This excellent Australian web-based resource for schools also includes lesson plans for all key learning areas and year levels, fact sheets, student activities, news from schools and an extensive library
- involving students in organising a student forum or debate on a relevant topic, a school or network poetry or essay competition, or exhibitions of student artwork
- local community participation in developing garden areas or murals featuring themes from students' countries of origin
- staging school assemblies, concerts, or family twilight activities celebrating the diversity of the local community.
Refugee Week Resource Kit
Refugee Week Resource Kit (PDF - 607Kb) - provides schools, students and teachers with links to up to date information and statistics including discussion of current issues relating to refugees, asylum seeker and displaced persons in Australia and around the world. Photographs, images, facts and figures are easily accessible for presentations, projects and classroom discussions.
Many of the links in the kit also include curricula, other information kits and activity ideas specifically designed for schools:
- HREOC: Youth Challenge - Teaching Human Rights and Responsibilities (http://www.humanrights.gov.au/youthchallenge)
- HREOC: Information for Teachers (http://www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_teachers)
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (http://www.abc.net.au/civics/oneworld/convention)
- United Nations Cyberschoolbus (http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus)
- Australia for UNHCR (http://www.unrefugees.org.au/how-you-can-help/schools.html)
The Languages and Multicultural Resources Centre (LMERC)
The Languages and Multicultural Resources Centre (LMERC) offers a wide range of publications, materials and resources useful for planning Refugee Week activities. These include:
- Victorian Foundation of Survivors of Torture (VFST) publications that assist students to understand refugee issues, like the Taking action – Human rights and refugee issues teaching resource
- Materials for assisting refugee students to settle into their new country and school like A guide to working with young people who are refugees, The Rainbow and Kaleidoscope programs for Children in Refugee Families, Healthwize – health literacy teaching resource for refugee and other ESL students and School’s in for refugees – Whole-school guide to refugee readiness
- Novels about the refugee experience and teacher resources relating to refugees
- The LMERC bibliographies: Refugees in literature and Refugee issues.