Nisrine (pronounced Nis-ri-ne) and her two-year-old sister Aisha have been attending her local community early childhood centre five mornings a week for the last six months. 

Nisrine’s family are Syrian, and they arrived in NZ as refugees when Nisrine was nearly two years old. The family are Sunni Muslim and speak Arabic at home. Nisrine’s mother, Maryam, drops off and collects the girls each day and has very little English language. Her father, Samir, has been learning English and works full-time.

As you read the stories, the highlighted comments will provide more information about the connections between learning story content, Te Whāriki and the Learning an Additional Language area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral Language & Literacy.