Fairfield High School - the mirror of Australia's multi-cultural legacy

The "idea is to give refugee kids a forum to tell their story when quite often it has been a secretive part of their past. It informs us about their mindset and rather than it being something that they are ashamed of, we actually make it something to be celebrated," notes Mark.

David Saeed, 13, from Iraq, escaped to Jordan where he lived in a refugee camp from the age of six to ten. "Discussing my story feels more comfortable because it was a heavy weight on me to talk about and show people how hard my story was and how hard my life was," says David.

He relates to the other students stories, "because it has happened to me before, the things they experience – all of them happened to me – it moves me."

Sylvia Deefholts, 55, an ESLTeacher who has worked at Fairfield for the last 20 years "finds that using personal narrative for building literacy is a really effective way to engage the students."

The program is also a wonderful platform to educate the wider community on refugee issues and is published into a formal book, which is made available in the community.

Ms Wiggins acknowledges that "refugees tend to sit on the peripheral edges of traditional Australian society – we still have a national identity that is very fixated on white settlement and we need to make a move away from that."

"Being able to give another perspective, from another cultural group, is going to give more understanding to the fact that our identity has changed," says Ms Wiggins.

"I am simply privileged to be able facilitate something like this," says Mark. But, his real joy lies in his family. "When I'm not at school most of my time is dedicated to my family. I would work for nothing except that the money I get from teaching finances my family habit."