The three, Sharon Mahon, Gay Lindsay and Laura Gonzalez, travelled to Winton for a series of six workshops organised by the Ministry of Education and again for the official graduation.
It is the first time Queenstown Primary School has been involved with the programme in which 18 English language assistants graduated from nine southern schools last Thursday.
The school has more than 50 pupils learning English as a second language and these represent more than 40 nationalities.
While other southern teacher aides at the workshops had ''four or eight'' pupils in their classes for English for speakers of other languages (Esol), Queenstown Primary School had between 12 and 20, the teacher aides said.
Pupils participate in Esol classes until their spoken English reaches a certain level.
All three of the teacher aides, now also English language assistants, said they felt the workshops were beneficial for reasons such as having a broadened knowledge of skills and strategies to use in the Esol room, a greater appreciation of where pupils came from and a greater understanding of the struggles of learning another language.
