Student welcome centre in Moncton helps families as newcomer enrolment skyrockets

A new province or a new country means a new school system to navigate.

Yet five-year-old Jhana-Jade Campbell, who has lived in Ontario, Jamaica and now New Brunswick, isn't worried about overcrowded classrooms or making new friends.

She's focused on her love ofrainbows and unicorns and when she will be allowed to take the school bus on her own.

But for her mother, lawyerAnika Spence, these things areespecially nerve-racking.

Spence said her family made the move from Brampton to New Brunswick to take advantage of the affordable home prices.

"We were really looking for a bigger house with bigger yard space, and that's, like, next to impossible to find" in Ontario," she said.

"And we moved here and we love it. We have a big house and a big yard."

With the help of the centre, Spence was able to register Jhana-Jade and her 12-year-old son for schooland get their bus schedule.

The second storey of the former Hillcrest School in Moncton, now called the International Welcome Centre, serves as a hub to help families figure out school and activity registrations, numeracy and literacy assessments, bus planning and newcomer services.

More than 470 students registered for school in the district in July and August, said Laura Jeffrey, the principal at the welcome centre.

Like Spence and her family, about 100 moved from other parts of Canada and the remaining 370 were international newcomers.

Both the Anglophone East School District, along with the FrancophoneSouth district, has continued to see significant enrolment growth in the Moncton area. A new school in the city'swest end recently opened, and the district now has 85 portable classrooms eitherin place or soon to be in place.

Maricris Tamula, an intercultural support worker at the welcome centre, is responsible for helping families navigate key information such as transportation, school hours and the district website.

It's work she loves to do because she knows what it's like to be a newcomer, having come to New Brunswick herself in 2021 from the Philippines with her school-aged daughter.

She arrived during the pandemic and remembershow difficult it was trying to do everything online.

"It's really hard and it's a little frustrating because you, as a parent, you want your kid to be in school, know everything about school," she said.

"We're coming here as a newcomer and we don't know anything."

Centre introduces classroom experiences

The welcome centre offers much more than bus schedules and school assignments.

As families walk down the hallway, a small guild of teachers instruct what's called the Strong Start program, which exists for students who speak no English, according to Jeffrey.

The program allows students to learn "survival English" or "functional language for school," she said.They are taught key phrases, such as "Can I go to the bathroom?" and "I need help."

Last year, Jeffrey said 1,900 students were registered and 1,000 of them didn't speak English. She expects the numbers to be similar this year.

She said there is also a bridging program for high school students at the centre, which allows students to get support with language and coursework before transitioning into their respective schools.

Sandy Edmunds, the school pathway and career counsellor at the centre, said she determines what grade level students go into and what credits they earned prior to entering a New Brunswick high school.

She said she meets students from all around the world and it has been interesting hearing their stories.

"Yesterday, I had a championship diver who is 16 years old," she said.

Edmunds said the biggest worry she hears from new students is about making new friends.

"I often tell the kids that there are so many students of their nationality in that school in particular," she said.

"I just had a Ukrainian student and he's going to Moncton High. And I said, 'There are so many Ukrainian students there that you'll have a really easy time meeting people.'"