Dalisay and her mother walked hand in hand all the way to the school gates where they were met by a teacher called Mrs Murry. The teacher was very friendly and welcomed Dalisay to the school and told her mother that she could come and collect her daughter again at three o’clock.

The morning passed in a blur as Dalisay was introduced to more teachers and lots and lots of children who all smiled and said hello. Dalisay did not understand a lot of what was said to her but it was explained that in the afternoon she would go to a special class with other children who had moved to England from all over the world.

When Dalisay arrived at the classroom later that afternoon, she knocked on the door and walked inside. She was very nervous and also very tired from such a long day of meeting strangers. But when she walked in she was greeted with a big smile by Mrs Mahmood who was from Pakistan.

‘Come on in, Dalisay,’ said the friendly teacher. ‘Today we are reading a book called Puss in Boots and later we will be playing some games and painting.’

The young girl noticed that all of the children in the classroom were very different from one another. There was a boy from Zimbabwe and two girls from Poland. There was an older girl from Albania and a boy who was even younger than Dalisay who said that he was from Iran. And to her great surprise, sitting at the back of the classroom with a copy of Puss in Boots clasped in her hands, was a young girl called Calia who was also from the Philippines!

‘Come over here and sit next to me!’ exclaimed Calia, who was just as surprised as Dalisay.

The two girls became instant friends as Calia explained all about the story of Puss in Boots and how they learned to improve their English with Mrs Mahmood who was the best teacher in the whole wide world.