National Refugee Week
The theme for this year’s National Refugee Week is ‘Celebrating the Year of Welcome’. Townsville Catholic Education’s Advisory Visiting Specialist EAL/D Rebecca Rowan spoke with Antoinette and her son Espoir about their family’s experiences of being welcome in our Catholic schools. Antoinette has two sons at Holy Spirit School and two daughters at St Margaret Mary’s School. Their experiences of welcome include the boy’s school friends inviting them to birthday parties and bringing them gifts and cards to celebrate their own birthdays and neighbours who have now become friends after dropping over tools to help fix bikes, bread and eggs. We recognise and value the positive contributions made by refugees to our school community and broader Australian society. Happy Refugee Week!