Fairfield High School is a co-educational high school offering a broad curriculum and comprehensive education with an emphasis on catering for the needs of the individual. Students from various backgrounds are welcomed into this multicultural learning community. A well established Intensive English Centre (IEC) caters exceptionally well for new arrivals to our country. Many of its students exit into our high school on graduation. The school has a particular focus on the need for each student to achieve their academic, sporting and social potential. The positive nature of the school is evident in its award and welfare systems. The aim of the school is to produce informed, confident and caring individuals through many quality programs promoting community achievement, respect and the environment.
Fairfield IEC, in the South Western Sydney region, provides intensive English language instruction, orientation, welfare and settlement support to newly arrived high school aged students, including international students. The IEC is in the grounds of Fairfield High School, and provides high school preparation support for students from diverse language backgrounds. Our centre has catered for students from Iraq, Vietnam, China, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Thailand, Africa, Burma and many different European countries.
The Intensive English curriculum is taught through key subject learning areas to develop students' English skills
to a level that will allow them to enter high school and continue their general education and English language learning. Bilingual staff assist student learning and support communication with parents and caregivers. Most students study in the specialised learning environment of the centre for approximately 30 to 40 weeks before transferring to a government high school. Courses for international students run for about 20 weeks.
A range of subjects from the NSW curriculum are taught including English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Visual Arts, Drama and Physical Education. These subjects are taught by fully qualified and experienced high school teachers and trained in both English as a Second Language (ESL) and the particular subject area they are teaching. We also have a team of school learning support officers who can speak Arabic, Assyrian, Chinese and Spanish. Our bilingual support officers provide an important link between the school staff, students and parents.
Welfare is also a priority at the IEC, where we have specialist migrant counsellors to assist students with settlement, personal issues and future educational/vocational pathways. Counsellors work closely with teachers and learning support officers to support the needs of all students.
The IEC has also very recently relocated into refurbished premises with a view to continually improve the quality of the learning environment for our students.
Channel 7 "Sunrise" host Andrew O'Keefe visited the school on Monday 5th December, 2011, with a film crew to cover the exciting story of Mr Mulas and Yr 11 student Ameer Mohammad Saeed's trip to Geneva. The first video is the actual screened section of 'Sunrise' on Sunday 5th Feb, 2011. The second is a slideshow of still photographs, followed by an in depth video coverage of the actual interviews.
