What is SSI?

The school integration system is a set of ready-made tools and ideas to be used, which has been divided into stages, according to the chronology of the school year. It was created on the basis of many years of experience of two institutions: Primary School. 16th Greater Poland Lancers Regiment in the Group and the Gimnazjum im. Feliks Kikulski in Michal (Dragacz Commune, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship) and shorter experiences of Primary School No. 5 for them. Col. Stanisław Sitek in Grudziądz. This is a proposal for implementation at school, not a mandatory procedure. It can be treated as a whole - as a model, but its individual elements can also be used depending on the needs of the institution and the existing solutions, e.g. in the context of working with a student with special needs.

The publication was published as part of the project “Refugees Have a Voice! — Participator” implemented as part of the Citizens for Democracy program, financed from the EEA Funds in cooperation with the Emic Foundation, the project partners Pracownia Zdrożonych Rozwoju and Polish Humanitarian Action. The publication aims to present possible models of work with migrants applying for refugee status and persons with international protection. In the report you can find information on how to build and implement school and local (municipal, municipal) integration systems and get acquainted with the results of research locating the strengths and weaknesses of the system for accepting and integrating people with migration experience in Poland.

From whom for whom?

The model was created by specialists from the Emic Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Action and the Sustainable Development Workshop in 2016 with the thought of school communities where children with migration experience learn or where they may appear. Its purpose is to facilitate work in a situation where people of diverse origins learn at school - especially in its initial phase.

What for?

The idea of the school integration system is the result of observations of the current practices of schools working with migrants. Interviews with school staff confirmed that in the vast majority of cases, when a migrant child arrived, school communities were left to fend for themselves. In such a situation, each school community developed its own tools and methods by trial and error. This system is intended to limit such situations in the future and ensure that schools that face a situation of working with a student with migration experience can benefit from the experience of institutions that have faced this challenge before. This is particularly important due to the huge role played by the school in creating a local community, especially in smaller towns. It is often the only place where migrant children and their parents can potentially integrate into the community. Well-conducted integration activities at school usually play a decisive role in the integration process.