The CES has been receiving a number of queries about Polish immigration and we have been undertaking a number of activities in order to publicise the existence of Catholic schools and colleges in England and Wales to the Polish community.  We are also keen to make more evident - for a wider audience - the work that our schools and colleges are doing to welcome new arrivals from all over the world, including those from Poland and Eastern Europe. 

In recent months, the CES has met with representatives of the Polish Embassy in the UK, prepared a position statement on the subject of Polish immigration and in May 2008 two members of CES staff conducted an interview with Ms Agnieszka Okonska, a Polish journalist.  Ms Okonska wrote a subsequent article for the Polish Daily Newspaper, available across the UK and the Sunday Gazette, a weekly, mostly London-based Polish newspaper distributed via churches and subscriptions amongst the Polish community.  The CES appreciates that more recent arrivals from Poland are more likely to read newspapers in the Polish language than English newspapers and therefore welcomed this innovative opportunity to promote Catholic education in a language more familiar to our target audience.  Scroll down to access the original article in Polish and Ms Okonska's English translation. 

If you have any queries about migration issues or the aforementioned CES position statement (click on the first link below to access the statement), please contact Laura McCann, Policy & Briefing Officer e: lmccann@cesew.org.uk.

Please note that you will need Adobe Acrobat to view these documents, which can be downloaded free of charge from the following link: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html