English as an Additional Language Teacher, Anthony Brewergray from Wodonga Senior Secondary College recently presented the College’s refugee support program to a Symposium in Melbourne. Anthony received a high level of praise for the programs that he runs at the College with Senior EAL project officer, Madeleine Parker saying “You spoke with such passion about Wodonga, the students and the community. It was great for the predominantly metropolitan audience to get a rural perspective on EAL and to showcase all the great work that you are doing”

The programs run at the College include specialised EAL classes, one to one support and careers programming, as well as a range of activities designed to increase student’s capacity to develop leadership and organisational skills in an Australian environment.  Wodonga Senior Secondary College has developed these programs to meet the needs of students from families holding Safe Haven Enterprise Visas, primarily from Bhutan and the Congo. The College also assisted the Refugee students to develop a program providing bicycles to other students, run multicultural events, organised cultural excursions, learnt to ski, raised funds for charities and are involved in a fashion based enterprise activity.

Through the program, the College aims to provide all students that speak English as an additional language with the resources and knowledge to be an outstanding citizen.