Wagga's refugee school visit helps both ways
A unique program will see a visit to Wagga Wagga's Mt Austin High School by thirty refugee students seeking asylum in Australia.
The exchange is part of efforts to help local students understand the city’s growing refugee community, as it welcomes more and more people from harsh and war-torn parts of the world.
The migrant students from Chatswood High's Intensive English Centre will use their time during the visit to learn more about local kids and help celebrate Indigenous culture.
Stuart Wood, a head teacher at Mt Austin, says that while the students have been in Australia for less than two years, but hopes the lessons locals learn will last much longer.
“For a number of our kids, over the last six months, they're starting to see young people wearing hajibs coming to the school,” he said in an interview with the ABC.
“So it opens up our students understanding of refugee kids and makes it easier, I think, for our refugee kids at Mt Austin, because our students will know more about them and what their life was like up until this point.”
“I think it’s really important for kids in regional areas to understand what it would be like to live in a refugee camp for three or four or five years before you've got an opportunity to come to a country like Australia.
“And then the response of some of the refugee kids here, so they really understand how lucky we are, to all live in Australia,” he said.