CPD Online Courses for School Staff working with Newcomer or Traveller Pupils

Aims of the training are:

• To develop best practice in Intercultural Education;
• To ensure the integration and quality attainment of pupils with different ethnic backgrounds and home languages; and
• To provide staff in schools with opportunities to examine practice and develop insights into provision for Newcomer and Traveller pupils at classroom and whole school level.

1. Working with Newcomer and Traveller Pupils in Primary Schools 

2. Working with Newcomer and Traveller Students in Post-Primary Schools 

• To develop best practice in Intercultural Education.
• To ensure the integration and quality attainment of pupils with diverse cultural backgrounds and home languages.
• To provide staff in schools with opportunities to examine practice and develop insights into provision for Newcomer and Traveller pupils or students at classroom and whole school level.

Courses open from 22nd September 2026 for 10 weeks

Study time: 20 hours approximately.

A shorter five week course will be available in January 2027. 

Cost: £85 approx.

Enrolment opens in mid - August and closes in mid - September.

Maximum number of students per course: 20.

Minimum number: 10.

Lesley Millar, Education Authority, Intercultural Education Service.

The courses will be of interest to teaching and support staff working with Newcomer and Traveller pupils and students in mainstream classrooms in schools.

• Intercultural Awareness 
• Welcome and Communication 
• Assessment and Planning 
• Curriculum Access (Early Days) 
• Curriculum Access (Moving On) 

The second course (Jan 2027) will cover the following areas: working with pupils/students who have less well-developed literacy skills; working with withdrawal groups; preparing students for exams (post-primary only) and leadership and management. Students may choose two out of these four units.

Units within each course are adapted to suit the context: primary or post-primary, teaching or support staff. There two pathways, Newcomer or Traveller and students will be asked to choose a pathway on registration. Units 1, 2 and 4 contain common activities with different assignments, with a Newcomer or Traveller focus. There are separate Units 3 and 5 on both courses with either a Newcomer or Traveller focus.

By the end of the course, support staff and teachers will be able to: 

• Embed approaches to develop the intercultural skills and competencies of all pupils in the school.
• Develop approaches to help Newcomer and Traveller parents understand school systems and routines.
• Use the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) to monitor and plan for language learning (Newcomer) or use the Levels of Progression for Communication to monitor and plan for literacy (Traveller).
• Embed approaches into planning to cater for the needs of all Newcomer and 
  Traveller pupils.
• Support Newcomer pupils with the language needed to access the curriculum or support Traveller pupils with literacy needed to access the curriculum.

The courses are completely online and delivered through Queen’s University, Open Learning. Each unit runs for two weeks. There are three online activities within each unit, which are designed to provide information, guidance, and practical ideas to help staff examine and develop best practice in school. All reading materials for the courses are provided online. A tutor will be assigned to each course and will be available regularly to provide support where needed.

• This course has been an eye-opening experience for me. I have been working  with newcomer children for the last eight years, but have never had a chance to expand my knowledge and make critical links between theory and practice. I have been strongly recommending this course to my colleagues from local secondary schools. 
• Like other students on this course, I have found the CEFR benchmarks to be very valuable. I was never fully aware of how informative it is. The language  games are fun; I have already used them and will continue to do so. I have also learned that creating a welcoming atmosphere can significantly help Newcomer families to adjust to a new reality.
• I found this course to be very useful throughout, with each unit feeding in well to an overall understanding of working with Newcomer pupils in Primary schools. I feel a lot more confident in my practice with the skills and knowledge gained from this course. In particular the assessments helped me to understand how the knowledge from the units would be used in practice.
• Highly informative, will definitely put the knowledge gained into practice.
• This is an excellent course, most valuable. I am now fully equipped and  knowledgeable as to how to implement an effective Newcomer provision programme - thank you!
• From completing this course, I am much more aware how language and cultural differences can have a bearing on communication.
• I can see how important it is for a school to be proactive in its welcoming approaches for newcomer families and have tools in place before they arrive to help with the language barriers and make the experience less stressful.
• I have learnt to keep things simple and use as many visuals as possible.
• The toolkit was an excellent resource to use while doing this course. I found the templates convenient to use and easy to adapt to fit the lesson and the level you are working at.
• While completing this course I have also been developing my knowledge in assistive technology in the classroom and have been linking what I have learnt here with the technology. These are great tools for helping newcomers to help themselves
• This course has helped me to take a holistic view on helping newcomers. Thanks for everything, really enjoyed this course.
• This course has significantly improved my ability to provide a more inclusive
  education for all Newcomer children.
• Key messages that I have taken from this course are that all teachers must be aware of the different intercultural skills so they can encourage all children to interact both effectively and, in a manner, which is acceptable to others from diverse cultural backgrounds.
• The practical activities carried out really demonstrated that Newcomer 
  children have a lot of pressures placed on them in trying to adapt to the challenges of an unfamiliar school environment. I believe I have a clearer 
  understanding of how I can help make that transition less frightening.
• Prior to undertaking the course, I had a rudimentary working knowledge of the CEFR. After completing Unit 3, I was able to review and level several 
  Newcomer pupils’ work with improved accuracy and confidence.
• The teaching and learning strategies contained in the Toolkit will be invaluable throughout the year as I help my newcomer pupils try and progress in all of the different areas of language and communication.

Visit the Queens University website to register for the course. 

Note: Registration does not open until mid-August 2026. In the meantime, if you are interested in the course, please email your details to Lesley Millar lesley.millar@eani.org.uk 

All interested parties will receive an email informing them when registration opens.