Edmonton Catholic Schools says program for newcomers seeing record number of participants

Thousands of children will head back to school next week, and for some, it will be their first time going to school in Canada.

Yaryna Palanitska will be starting Grade 3. She and her family don’t speak much English, so they spoke to CTV News Edmonton through a translator.

“She's saying she'll have lots of friends there, she already knows that. And she's saying she's going to have the best teacher ever,” the translator said.

Yaryna and her family came from Ukraine in March. They started school shortly after arriving in Edmonton.

“Like any newcomer, they were meeting with some challenges, but she's so happy to say that the process of adaptation for the kids was really smooth and easy,” the translator said on behalf of Solomiia Palanitska, Yaryna’s mother.

Her sister Anastiia is going into Grade 11. She says the biggest challenge is learning a new language.

“It's a little bit hard to speak with friends and teachers and learn some subjects.”

The girls took part in One World, One Centre, a resource offered by Edmonton Catholic Schools for newly arrived families.

“Just the fact that we're greeting them here, we try to do it in their first language, so they're able to ask the questions they want to ask,” Karen Fabris, manager of One World, One Centre said.

As part of the program, students take an assessment test, and parents are given a runthrough of what to expect from the school. They also receive school supplies.

Fabris says this is the busiest year on record for the program.

“We've been open 10 years and this is probably the busiest August we've seen.”

More than 350 students have registered for school through the centre this month.

The Palanitskas are grateful for the program.

“You will find a lot of friends. You will feel like, it's little bit your home, new home,” Anastiia said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jessica Robb.