On this page
Who we are
The Intercultural Education Service (IES) is available free of charge to all schools across Northern Ireland. IES aims to support Asylum-Seeking, Refugee, Traveller, Roma and other Newcomer pupils and their parents in accessing education. We provide advice, guidance and focused support to schools, families, and other educational support services to help meet the Education Authority mission:
"To give our children and young people the best start in life and to provide a high-quality education for every child"
What we do and who we work with:
We have a number of related objectives that align with our values as an intercultural support service:
- To meet the learning needs of our children and young people with additional needs;
- To provide excellent educational supports for our schools and target communities;
- To provide a consistent service to schools and families in need of support across Northern Ireland;
- To facilitate equality of access and equality from pre-school to post-primary education;
- To build the capacity of schools to meet the intercultural development needs of children and young people;
- To promote whole school approaches to service development;
- To promote full inclusion and integration across all areas of education and youth services;
- To support and encourage family learning, out of school hours learning and life-long learning.
Our service delivery plan outlines how IES will provide a comprehensive set of support activities, which are designed to help us achieve the service delivery goals stated above.
IES work with parents, families, schools, educational support services and various multi-disciplinary agencies to help meet the additional educational needs of children from Asylum Seeking, Refugee, Traveller, Roma and other Newcomer families.