Refugees skip surf for summer school

At a time when most schools are preparing for a fresh year, Mt Albert Grammar has been holding a special prizegiving.

Together with Auckland's refugee communities, the school recognised the achievements of students completing the summer refugee study programme yesterday.

The high school has hosted the course for the last five years and it is attracting a growing number of students from countries such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan.

Somali community leader Mahad Warsame, who helped in organising the free programme, felt it would help many refugee students who struggled with regular school work.

"In school time, they are quite behind because of education background and language difficulties," he said. "This way they can catch up to the other students in school during the holiday time."

Many of the students had trouble learning English on top of other school requirements, Mr Warsame said.

"A lot of the time, refugee parents don't speak very good English so they don't read the school reports that get sent out to them. But now they can come in and see where their child is and if they need help in school. They understand when you speak with them orally," he said.

The students also studied science, computing and maths for half a day for two weeks.

Mr Warsame hopes that the refugee students who have participated in the two-week programme will go on to university when they finish school.

"Often when young refugees leave school, they don't go to university, they just get a job or hang around on the streets. To help them into university is our goal."

Simret Araya from Eritrea, near Ethiopia, is hoping his efforts at summer school will help him on his way to tertiary education.

With English his biggest barrier when he arrived in New Zealand, he found the programme really helped. Now he is looking forward to studying engineering at university when he leaves school at the end of this year.

Almaz Dawit, also of Eritrea, believes the programme will help her fulfil her dream of becoming a fashion designer.

"It really helps me to prepare for the next level that I'm going to. I'm going to be seventh form this year so it gives me some knowledge about what I'll be learning," she said.

With the help of the summer school, Miss Dawit believed she had "come a long way" from when she first arrived in the country five years ago.