Ukrainian children fleeing the war are being welcomed into British classrooms where they are able to continue their education in safety.
Teachers and pupils have made careful preparations to welcome the refugees as they are plunged into a new culture 2,000 miles from home.
Many of the newcomers have limited English, so extra care has been taken to help them settle in as easily as possible.
At Glapthorn CE Primary School in Oundle, Northants, Ukrainian schoolgirl Sofi has been taken into Year 5.
To prepare for her arrival, her new classmates have used Google Translate to label everything from laptop trolleys to fire alarms in Ukrainian.
Some use universal sign language and picture cards to help her learn. They even tried to learn some Ukrainian using the Duolingo language app.
Sofi has also been allocated a “buddy”, Sylvia, to help her find her feet. Sylvia said: “We couldn’t really learn that much on Duolingo, because it would just be like, ‘Where is the honey?’”
The new, safe life for Ukrainian pupils is a positive outcome of the world-wide help given to their war-torn homeland.
Horrific images have emerged of bodies in the streets of Severodonetsk , a city in the eastern Luhansk region of Ukraine which Russian troops are trying to overrun. Kyiv’s security services have intercepted phone conversations of Russian troops claiming they want to destroy all Ukrainian towns they cannot occupy.
Some 30,700 Russian soldiers have died and 1,362 of their tanks have been destroyed since the February invasion, Ukrainian figures showed today.
The US said today it was supplying more anti-tank weapons and short-range missiles to Ukraine, as Germany agreed to provide Kyiv’s military command with air defence systems.
Around 53,800 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK through the Family Scheme, meaning more young pupils will now be joining British schools.
Among the arrivals is Veronica, who has joined Year 8 at Prince William School, also in Oundle. Veronica is supported by buddy Evie whose geography teacher father, David Sage, got pupils to produce a display celebrating Ukraine’s culture.
Veronica finds England “very beautiful” and is impressed at the school’s treatment of topics such as racism, homelessness and LGBT issues.
Head Sarah Kerr-Dineen said: “Being a long way from home when home has been destroyed is very, very hard.”
