In a classroom filled with boisterous new entrants, 6-year-old Emmanuel is silent. He clenches his fist around a handful of dominoes. His sister, Hannah, 8, reaches over and gently prises one tile from his hand. She places it next to another with corresponding numbers in the middle of the table and tells him, “Like this. You see, they match.” He nods.
It is 4pm on a Thursday. Most pupils at Knighton Normal School in Hamilton have already collected their bags and hats and headed home. But Emmanuel is one of a group of new immigrants at an after-school class, learning about maths through play in a programme called Fun with Numbers, run and organised by charitable trust Mathematics for a Lifetime.
The family arrived from India in late 2023 and Hannah is already fluent in English and a whizz at maths.
Emmanuel did not speak at school for several months and would not leave his sister’s side. Recently, he has begun to use words.
Children learn maths through card games and puzzles. Photo / Venetia Sherson
“There are many things that are daunting for children arriving here from other countries,” Diane Cooper, team leader at the English Language Learning centre at Knighton, says.
“For some, the simple act of sharing or relinquishing an item like a crayon – or a domino – can provoke heightened behaviour. Having something of one’s own is precious when you have been robbed of everything, including the necessities of life.”
For those from war-torn countries or who have spent time in refugee camps, there are greater fears.
“A school bell sounds like an air raid alarm, hot air balloons flying over the school appear as missiles. Scissors could be weapons.
“When a community constable visited the school to teach children how to cross the road safely, some children were frightened because he wore a uniform. In their home country, police were not always trusted.”
Their response to fear is to hide under a desk.
Diane Cooper, of the English Language Learning centre at Knighton. Photo / Venetia Sherson
Knighton Normal School has 730 pupils. One-third are from various countries, representing 75 ethnicities – one of the highest numbers of any school in New Zealand.
Some are from families lured by the promise of employment or higher education (Waikato University is a neighbour); others are the casualties of civil war, brutal regimes and famine. Seventeen families are refugees who fear for relatives back home.
“Please don’t use my last name,” Abdi, who has come to pick up his oldest son from class, says. He fled civil war in Somalia and spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp. He still has family at home.
Abdi has four children aged 4 months to 5 years. The oldest, Hamza, started school at Knighton this year.
“I expect him to learn English quickly so he can teach his younger siblings,” he says.
He knows it is essential for his children to do well in school and that language is the key to good jobs. In Kenya, he had a well-paid position in an office. In New Zealand he has been able to find work as only a labourer. He is off work with a back injury.
Children enrolled at Knighton have come from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America and Europe.
Three from Syria spent time in Jordanian refugee camps. Others are the children of Afghans who worked with the New Zealand Defence Force or other government agencies during New Zealand’s deployment in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021.
All children are enrolled as migrants. Most speak little or no English when they arrive.
Mothers Medinah Fagbemi (left), Parminder Kaur, Rathini Thayanithy and Dinusha Ja gather in the room next to the classroom. Photo / Venetia Sherson
Cultural differences
The school is proud of its English Language Learning programme, in which most of its pupils become confident in the language within a year. But, while language is a vital key to integration, social cohesion involves far more than fluency, principal Andrew Campbell says.
“Tolerance of difference, including cultural and religious diversity, is essential to ensure all children are safe,” he says. “Any racist behaviour is dealt with quickly. There is no tolerance for bullying.”
Even in the playground, selection of teams by race is not allowed.
If incidents do flare up, staff hope the children will use de-escalation and self-regulation strategies they have practised in class. Cooper says it is also important for staff to understand the triggers that lead to tension. “We try to understand rather than react to behaviours.”
To encourage greater understanding and trust, the school organises cultural festivals and language week programmes in which all students participate.
The result is transformational. “Mostly, what you see walking around the playground is children playing happily.”
But sometimes fear and misinformation can get in the way. When the school celebrated Pride Week, a campaign celebrating rainbow staff and pupils, a ripple of misinformation in community groups led some parents to say they would take their children out of school.
“They believed the school was promoting sexuality,” says Cooper.
“We talked to those concerned and clarified the misinformation. And we said that in our school love was demonstrated in different ways in different families.”
There are other cultural differences. In some households, swearing is acceptable, while for others it is offensive.
Tutor Laura helps a pupil with her origami. Photo / Venetia Sherson
“We look for what is fair and acceptable to everyone,” Cooper, who has been an ELL teacher for eight years and was previously a specialist teacher in health, physical education and outdoor education, says.
“We remind the children we have a school language where those words are not used. Likewise, if families are not comfortable with their children taking part in a school activity such as swimming, we look at the barriers for why things aren’t done and then look at how we can adapt to make it possible.”
The school runs separate swimming classes for Muslim girls.
Teaching practices in New Zealand may sometimes be different from a family’s homeland. In some home countries, classes are segregated by gender.
The school works hard to explain those differences to parents. Following the Christchurch mosque attacks five years ago, the Ministry of Education established Learning Community Hubs to help migrant parents understand the New Zealand education system. Knighton has run 15 sessions, which include topics such as the place of the te Tiriti o Waitangi in the school curriculum. All were well attended.
Campbell says the school is particularly known for the dynamic relationship between tangata whenua and migrant families. Nearly 40% of pupils at Knighton are Māori.
“Emphasis is placed on the unique position of Māori as tangata whenua. And we have a strong connection to neighbouring Kirikiriroa Marae.”
Andrew Campbell has been principal of Knighton for nearly four years. A self-described “ageing, white, mono-lingual male”, he admits he is an odd fit at a school with such a mosaic make-up. But his teaching career has prepared him for the role. He has taught in several schools overseas, including in England, China and Dubai.
In London, he taught for four years in the borough of Tower Hamlets in east London, a tough neighbourhood with high unemployment and drug use.
Pedlars in the streets gave students free samples of drugs to get them hooked. One of his pupils was fed heroin daily to keep her calm. The nickname of the street where the school was located was Crack Street.
The pupils there were almost 100% new-immigrant families from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh who had come to the UK as part of a refugee arrangement with the British government. They spoke Bengali.
To ensure children arrived at school by 9.30am, Campbell knocked on doors of council housing estates and escorted the children to school. “They were always dressed in school uniform and waiting to be picked up.” He sometimes had up to 30 children walking in his wake.
His approach to his role at Knighton is modelled largely on the leadership at that school.
“There was a very structured approach to learning with high expectations of success.” At Knighton, he says, success is defined as having a positive influence on the formation of the children’s character, skills and values while learning new things.
He was deputy principal at Knighton from 2006-13 and when the position as principal came up, he jumped at the chance to return.
Knighton Normal School principal Andrew Campbell. Photo / Supplied
But the demographics of the area had changed. “There was a lot more in-fill housing, rental properties and overcrowding. Some families were sharing homes to save money.”
He gets angry when the area is painted in a poor light. “There is so much good that goes on here.”
To accommodate the diversity at his school, he appoints teachers with a high EQ who are flexible in their approach to teaching and communicating. There is a growing diversity of languages among staff and those who work with the staff. He is learning te reo.
He worries the new curriculums to be introduced next year by the Ministry of Education will not allow for flexibility in delivery of education. “Here one size does not fit all. We have to be able to adapt to suit our students’ different needs.”
The new rules about absenteeism are also a concern. Under an initiative announced in September by Associate Education Minister David Seymour, parents of students absent for 15 days could be prosecuted. “A number of our families return to their homeland to visit other family members, which is important,” Campbell says. “Their absence will still be coded in the same way.”
Ethnic diversity rising ‘rapidly’
The Education Review Office last year produced a report that pointed out ethnic diversity was increasing rapidly in New Zealand (in 20 years, a quarter of learners will identify as Asian) and changes needed to be made to what was taught and how it was taught to meet the needs of learners from ethnic communities.
Campbell agrees. “There are challenges for us as a country. When migrant rules were relaxed after Covid in 2023, the floodgates opened. We had 30 new migrant families enrol in term four last year.”
He would like assurances from the Government that English Language Learner advocates have a voice around the table when discussing any changes.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, Emmanuel is getting the hang of dominoes. He places a tile with four dots adjacent to another. Tutor Laura, from Madrid, praises him. At other tables, pupils are learning about shapes and angles through origami; another group is playing cards. The class is funded for only 12 students, but there are 18 here today, many are older siblings.
Cooper says programmes like Fun With Numbers, run by Mathematics for a Lifetime and sponsored by Hamilton City Council, are vital to success. “A key to learning is enjoyment,” she says.
“These children have already had a full school day, yet here they are enjoying another 90 minutes of maths. At the end of the session we have to tell them to go home. They rarely miss a session.”
Medinah Fagbemi, of Nigeria, who has two children aged 7 and 5, in the class, says, “They are always asking when the maths class is on.”
The programme ran for 10 weeks at Knighton. Its continuation is dependent on further funding.
Venetia Sherson is a Waikato journalist.
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