'Children here are free to be who they are'

Assanato Embalo's family left Guinea-Bissau when she was six. She is one of Northern Ireland's 17,400 "newcomer pupils" - students who may have been born outside the UK and do not initially speak the same language as their teacher.

More than half of Assanato's school in the town of Dungannon, County Tyrone, are classified as newcomer pupils.

Dungannon's population has seen an increase in the number of families from outside the UK in the past 20 years, largely due to increased employment in local food processing and engineering firms.

The town now has sizeable East Timorese, Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanian and African communities.

Video journalist: Niall McCracken