When 40 students arrive at a school mid-year: "We must decide who to leave behind."

BarcelonaFátima is 12 years old. A few months ago, she entered an unfamiliar space. A classroom with thirty strangers, most of whom are lifelong friends. It was far from what had been her home until recently: she and her mother and sister fled Algeria, the only landscape the girl had seen since birth.

On her first day of school, her teacher focused much of his attention on her. He asked her questions and tried to connect with her. Despite the teacher's good intentions, Fátima didn't understand a single thing he was saying. In fact, she doesn't understand it now either. Her sister Wassila tells her story in the ARA, and she does so in English, from the Salesianos Rocafort School in Barcelona.

Teachers, principals, and counselors describe the almost endless reasons for arriving at school after the school year has already started—what is known as "enrollment viva" (live enrollment)—and are repeated in schools across the country. From a simple move to a parental separation, a change of neighborhood due to eviction, or, in many cases, fleeing the country that was their home to try to find a better future.

Whatever the situation, the emotional backpack of the new student is full, and sometimes learning math or literature is the least urgent thing. Even more so considering that they have only arrived in Catalan schools during this school year. almost 75,000 students through their live enrollment. That's more than 400 new students every day.

Although the Department of Education has not yet clarified how many of these children and adolescents are newcomers and how many have changed schools in Catalonia, the schools contacted by ARA assure that the majority belong to families who have emigrated and that many live in vulnerable conditions.

Students who arrive overnight

"It's very hard to say it like this, but we've reached a point where we must decide who to ignore," laments Jordi Barberan, director of the Salesianos Rocafort School in Barcelona's Eixample district, helplessly. He explains that there have been periods in which they have received a dozen new students in just two weeks. They have encountered very difficult cases: students who came to class after spending the night sleeping with their families in a tent on the street, or adolescents whose age was unknown and who, therefore, were enrolled in a grade that perhaps wasn't theirs. "It's true that teachers are needed, but more than teachers, we need social workers and psychologists, someone who can accompany them," Barberan requests.

The pedagogical coordinator of the Enric Borràs Institute in Badalona, ​​​​Anna Pascual, also requests this. "During the first half of the school year, we've welcomed one or two new students each week. We manage it as best we can and place them in the class with the fewest students at their level, but this approach means we can only follow numerical criteria, not pedagogical ones." Furthermore, she and several school principals emphasize that they are notified "from one day to the next" that new students will arrive, which makes the process even more complicated.

"Every time they arrive, all the established plans have to be modified because we have to conduct an initial welcome with the family to gather information about the student and then provide support," warns Marta Noguera, counselor at the Lluís Domènech i Montaner Institute in Barcelona. This year, they have had 40 new students, nine of them in the last two weeks.

This support is what Fátima and her family have needed. Her mother, who prefers not to give her name, explains, using her mobile phone's translator—she still doesn't know Catalan, Spanish, or English—the journey she endured to get to the Eixample school. "We experience a lot of violence in our country, and I don't want my family to grow up with the same injustice I was raised in. That's why I fled with my daughters," she recalls. She explains that she arrived here with enough money to buy a house, but the one they sold her was illegal, and the police "kicked them out."

Now, she and her two daughters live in a "respectable" hostel provided by the Immigrant, Emigrant, and Refugee Assistance Service (SAIER). Fátima and Wassila's daily life consists of commuting from the hostel to school and from school to the hostel. Their adaptation has been very uneven. "The eldest integrates more easily because she's sociable and speaks English, but the youngest [Fátima] is more shy and very difficult," explains the mother. In fact, although he is present in the conversation, the teenager hasn't said a word.

Overcrowded Reception Classrooms

In all these cases, the ideal is for the newly arrived student to spend two or three years with the support of the reception classroom, but schools are asking for help because they lack resources to adequately offer this resource. "On average, in a regular primary classroom we should have 22 students. In our reception classroom, we have 29," criticizes Olga Garrido, director of the Antoni Gaudí School in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. She also warns that the reception classroom is only available from the third grade onwards. "They sell us children to pre-school who don't understand the language, don't speak, don't connect... That's impossible to manage in a regular classroom where there are other children who also have special needs or who simply need our attention," she laments.

However, the situation becomes even more complicated when new students arrive in the third trimester or in the final year of a school year, as happened to Wassila. "You can imagine what a student does when they arrive at the end of the year in a classroom where they don't understand Catalan or know anyone. All of this leaves them in a very difficult situation for accessing learning and continuing to develop both socially and emotionally," laments Noguera.

"I love Catalan, but I still don't have enough command of it to be able to speak it and feel confident," the teenager admits. "I speak it a little at school with my classmates, but it's exhausting to spend all day trying to make myself understood in a language I don't know," he insists in English. But he adds: "When I know enough, I'll be able to understand people on the street, and I think I can be happy here."

"The first word I learned is 'live'"

Despite the many shortcomings and powerlessness of teachers, there are also cases that give meaning to the work. Heydi and Allen are a good example. He arrived at the Salesians of Rocafort two months ago, and she a month and a half ago. Both are in the first year of compulsory secondary education and have become friends in the reception class. "The truth is that the first few days I felt overwhelmed because I didn't understand anything, I didn't know where to go, and I thought a lot about my family," Heydi admits, speaking in Spanish and with a few words of Catalan.

The girl explains that before coming from Peru, her mother told her that Catalan was spoken here, and she began to study it. "The thing is, studying it there isn't the same as speaking it here. In the reception class, I understand it quite well, but when we have a normal class, if Carme [the teacher] is far away, I have a hard time understanding what she's saying," she says. Heydi adds: "They teach us a lot of verbs and words, but the first one I learned is live".

Allen's case is somewhat different. He came with his family from Paraguay, apparently on vacation. "When we arrived here, they told me we were staying and that it was the best thing for me," he recalls with a smile. "The first day was difficult because everything was new and I didn't know they spoke Catalan, but it's not a problem because it's similar to Spanish. I'm learning quickly, maybe too quickly," he says. Now he goes to the Salesians, but his brother has been assigned to another center. "I miss him because we always went together and it's a bit complicated for my mother to take us to different places from Badal."

"I had a good time, they taught me how to introduce myself, but we were also able to try the fritters and we learned a lot about Sea and sky –He answers when asked about the reception classroom. "They also taught us that dance from here where everyone holds hands and makes a circle," he explains. What has most impacted Heydi since she arrived has been Sant Jordi's Day: "It's not done in my country, but I see that here it's a tradition for everyone and I like it."

"Allen wants to study even if it's impossible," he admits. Heydi is clear that she wants to be a judge. "I know that first I have to get my degree and they've told me that after that I have to take exams. Also, if I had time, I would like to be a veterinarian," she explains. And Wassila is also clear about it: "Since I was little, I had the dream of being an engineer and now I'm clear that I want to study technology and physics."