Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's definitely been an honour and a privilege. Schools have been really stepping up and doing their own initiatives at the school. The children have seen it as a way to understand the world better. Our board's priority is equity. We definitely would support this. We know that th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Ahead of time in the fall we did know that the students were coming. The Ministry of Education since December has been providing our school board with very thorough communication on a regular basis. Memos were received in December and in the early part of this new year, where we

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can speak to the ESL programs in K to 12. We actually offer ESL support in every school in Peel, so there really isn't an issue around lineups. I have been in touch with our adult ESL site as well, and they did say that they are working very hard to support families. Where th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could also add that the Ministry of Education has provided the school boards with grants. We applied for a $30,000 grant, so we were able to run some wonderful professional learning for our teachers and the school administrators. We also network with the ESL leads across the pr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One thing I can speak to is the idea of just being in school. The orientation to school has been a big adjustment for students and they will continue to do that over the next year. We have a framework that we have actually received from our Ministry of Education in Ontario, whic

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could also add about the social extracurricular programs. During the summer, we're particularly focused on making sure that students who have had gaps in education have lots of opportunities in the summer. With some of our programs that already exist, such as Camp I Can and Cam

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our board has worked diligently to mobilize efforts to serve Syrian newcomers and communicate across departments within our district through the development of the Inspire Hope action team. We meet frequently to give updates from areas such as special education, mental health, so

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My name is Zaiba Beg, and I'm the instructional coordinator for English as a second language and English literacy development programs for K to 12. We would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.