Insight: March 31

Tonight on Insight, host Jenny Brockie meets students from Holroyd High in Western Sydney, where six out of 10 students are refugees.

Around a third of its pupils have been in Australia for less than three years. Some have never been to school before arriving at Holroyd. Some arrive at the school with a traumatic history. Most speak little or no English.

The hurdles to academic achievement are significant. Yet last year 54 per cent of year 12 students at Holroyd High received first round university offers. The national average is 30 per cent.

For many students this modest high school in Western Sydney provides a fresh start in a new country. For others, who’ve come from the local area, Holroyd High offers them a second chance and with a surprising new direction.

This week on Insight the students and teachers from Holroyd High share their stories of resilience, their aspirations and their triumphs. How can schools like Holroyd prepare these kids for a new life in Australia?

Guests include:

Denise Carrick, Deputy Principal
“We also believe in giving people a second chance … and often we go with our gut instinct.”

Taylah, student
“My first opinion was it’s full of ‘imports’, like why would I go? … like I wouldn’t belong there, I’m true blue Aussie … I was a very angry person and now I’m like, at a school that I like and I’m happier…”

William, student
“I think that Australia and the school wouldn’t be the same and we wouldn’t have the same perspective on it if there wasn’t people from different ethnic backgrounds.”

Muhannad, student
“First night they told me you’re not allowed to stay in Australia and you have to be transferred to Nauru lsland…I said I had all this conditions, I left my home, I left whatever I had, all my memories in my country and to come here and then not accept us again?”

Chantelle, student
“I thought ‘oh, [my classmate was] just like a normal kid who’s just come in’, [but] he came on a boat, he’s had all this terrible stuff happen to him. How did I not know this? He hid it very well.”

Dorothy Hoddinott, Principal
“Young people should be looking to the future and people who are in their teens and finishing school should be arranging their lives for the future…they shouldn’t be denied that possibility.”

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.