Ideas for the reception of students in a multicultural school community

Visited the mayor with a variety of ideas on welcoming students of foreign origin.

Second-year students in Hraunvalla School have been working on a project related to democracy and the inclusion of pupils of foreign origin in the school over the past few weeks. This morning, 44 pupils, along with their teachers, visited the Mayor, Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, and presented her with ideas from the pupils and their parents on how to best welcome new pupils to their new surroundings and community. This project is also linked to Erasmus work in which Hraunvallaskóli is participating with four other countries.

21 languages and 152 pupils of foreign origin at Hraunvallaschool

At the end of April, teachers will present the project in Poland to teachers from schools in the four partner countries: Poland, Spain, Denmark and Finland. In total, there are 152 pupils of foreign origin at Hraunvallaskóli, who speak 21 languages. There are 261 pupils in total at the school. In Year 2 at Hraunvallar School, 19 out of 44 pupils are of foreign origin, and 12 languages are spoken in the class. There is great enthusiasm for holding a multicultural event at the school to showcase the diversity of the school community.

Examples of suggestions from pupils and parents in a lovely book to the mayor:

• They have one day at school where the Icelandic children teach the new children about Iceland; what children in Iceland do after school, what is eaten, what sports they can play…
• Give them Icelandic food to taste
• Teach them about Icelandic culture and learn about their culture.
• They have theme days where the children can present the countries they come from; culture, customs, games, sports, famous sportspeople, etc.
• It is important for those who are already here to get to know the culture of those who come from other countries; for example, food from those countries could be served for lunch at school.
• Draw our countries
• Create a project about us all being equals.
• Hold a joint food festival with more schools
• Have two friends in the class to help and play with new pupils.
• Show them the school
• Talk to them; what their favourite food is, what sports they play and what siblings they have.
• Be brave enough to ask them about the country they lived in before.
• Always invite them to play and don't leave anyone out.
• Smile at them and show respect, be patient, polite and friendly.
• Be warm and kind and accept them as they are.
• Never make fun of people who are different.
• We can offer them friendship, cooperation and responsibility.
• Help them learn Icelandic
• Show them patience when they are learning the language.
• Give them a sheet with lots of Icelandic words to learn.
• Label the things in the classroom so they can read and learn the names of the things.
• They have pictures about feelings and teach them to express their feelings.
• Write the word 'friend' in other languages (the languages of the students in the class).
• Don't mess with me
• To be present
• Help them make friends
• Create friendship groups within the class that meet up after school.
• Invite them home to play
• Invite them to come and play together
• Help them with their homework
• We can invite them to dinner
• Invite them to sports training
• Show them the nice places in Hafnarfjörður.
• Provide academic material in their language if it is available.