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WELCOME  - ​This lesson will explore what it means to feel welcome.  Through engaging with this workshop children should begin to realise that they can offer support to others and can make others feel welcome.

Prior Learning
Knowledge and understanding of:
  • The Convention on the Rights of the Child
Identity - the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
Culture - the learned ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.
Belonging - need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, peers, a religion, a culture, people tend to want to belong.
Download Topic Guidance Arrival






​​Students will be enabled to: 

  1. Explore the experiences of young people who have to leave their home

  2. Understand the impacts migration has on young people

  3. Understand the personal loss young people feel when they leave their home  


1st Year Junior Cycle English / Junior Cycle 

  • Key skill: Working with Others

  • Key skill element: Respecting Difference

  • Key skill: Being Literate

  • Key skill element: Exploring and creating a variety of texts, including multi-modal texts ·


Main Learning Outcomes (from English specification) addressed in this lesson: OL 4, OL 10



Introduce students to the many ways cultures welcome each other.  For fun, ask students to mimic the greetings to each other. Find out if there are people from other cultures in your class that would have a different way to greet people in their culture. 

Discuss how cultural differences can cause some individuals to feel like outsiders and unwelcome. Have you ever felt like an outsider in a new environment? This could be a new sports team, a new school, or new neighborhood. Was this ostracisation based on your skills, gender, looks, religion or race? How did it make you feel to be excluded?


Watch Minahil's and Hannan's story. How can you relate to them in learning how to assimilate in their new home. Hannan found a community with sport. As hurling is a part of Irish culture and heritage, the sharing of Irish culture with Hannan at his school helped him to learn and celebrate the country that he was living in. Sharing cultures and integration of people from different backgrounds helps communities. Diversity is something to embrace and not shy away from. 


What is something from your own background that makes you different from someone in your own community or from a person from a different country? Choose a country that you are interested in; in terms of culture, dance, sport, music, cuisine etc... Pretend that you are moving to this country. What would be some exciting ways to embrace the new country you are moving to? What would make it hard to live in the new country? Would language or culture be an issue as an Irish person?


How would you want to be treated if you moved to the country you have chosen? What if you couldn't move to the country you chose, but one was picked for you? Would this make a difference in your ability or desire to learn about the new culture?


How would you want people to treat you after being forced to move?  


Stage 2



Share with the children the poster on Convention of the Rights of the Child. Ask them to determine which rights are significant to the topic they have been discussing. 

Article 3 (Best interests) All adults should do what is best for you. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children.

Article 4 (Protection of rights) The government has a responsibility to make sure your rights are protected. They must help your family protect your rights and create an environment where you can grow learn and reach your potential. 

Article 9 (Separation from parents): You have the right to live with your parent(s), unless it is bad for you. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.


Article 10 (Family reunification): If you live in a different country than your parents you have the right to be together in the same place.