First Ukrainian pupils start school in Dorchester
Prince of Wales School is helping the young children settle in to their new environment
The first Ukrainian pupils have arrived at their new school in Dorchester.
Four of them began classes at Prince of Wales School last week, after they arrived the weekend before.
Gary Spracklen is headteacher at the school. He told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"We don't often get new faces at Prince of Wales School, there's very little turnover, so whenever there's a new child there's always great excitement and never more so than in this case.
"Initially we did support the children by them not going into class straight away just because there would have been that sense of becoming overwhelmed. Now they're coming into class as normal and taking part in lessons and they very much enrich our school."
The children have been using a translation app that can provide almost live interpreting between the children, their teachers and their friends.
Gary says that's been an important tool:
"Each of the children have been given a mobile device, a mobile phone essentially, that connects to our WiFi network and provides instant translation.
"It's just incredible really, because if you think back maybe 7 or 8 years ago, that kind of technology didn't exist. Now that technology is in the palm of the children's hands, it provides instant translation and increasingly it's more and more effective.
"What's really special about that is the children can take control of that technology and not be reliant upon an adult so actually those connections between the children as friends can happen straight away.
"There isn't an adult inbtween translating, there is child to child conversation and I think that's really powerful."