It is important for schools to know how to take proactive steps in creating a safe, inclusive and truly welcoming environment for refugee and asylum-seeking young people and to educate the wider school community to eradicate misinformation and prejudice. This guidance provides further information about schools' legal duties and ways in which you can support refugee and asylum-seeking young people in the classroom and build an inclusive school community.
Schools Legal Duties
Public Sector Equality Duty
Under the Equality Act 2010, all maintained schools and academies have a requirement to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act.
- Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
- Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are not named specifically in the Equality Act, but they are directly protected under the characteristic of ‘race’ as it is illegal to discriminate against people because of their colour, their nationality (including citizenship), and their ethnic origins and national origins.
Entitlement to Education
Asylum seeker and refugee pupils aged 5-18 have the same entitlement to full-time education or training as other pupils in England. This rule applies equally across local authority schools, academies and free schools.
Practical Tools and Guidance to Help You Support Refugees and Asylum Seekers
1. Be culturally sensitive
Refugees and asylum seekers all come from diverse backgrounds, learn about their backgrounds, their home life, their culture and what is important to them. Try to understand the world through their lens rather than just your own. For instance, in some cultures and countries, such as in South Asian countries, young people are taught the importance of not looking directly at those who have authority, such as parents/carers and teachers. Therefore, if you are speaking to a new student from a different culture to yours and the student is not engaging in eye contact, this might be because that is seen to be respectful in their culture.
It is important that children feel that their home language is valued. Having bilingual staff is ideal, but if this isn’t possible, encourage people to learn a few words in a child’s language, have bilingual signs, books and other resources, learn and use key words in home languages and share these in routines, songs, rhymes etc. All children can benefit from bilingual activities.
2. Understand the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers
Some of the challenges that young asylum seekers and refugees face in schools include being left out, bullied and harassed.
As well as challenges in school, asylum seeking and refugee young people often face multiple challenges outside of school which include lack of adequate housing, poverty, lack of family relations due to being separated from close and extended family members and lack of friendships. They may have existing physical and mental health issues which may have resulted from traumatic experiences including exposure to conflict, violence, danger, exploitation and bereavement. They can also feel alienation, disconnect and loneliness in their current environment.
3. Provide mental health and pastoral support
Make sure staff are trained in supporting the mental health of students and are conscious of the issues that students from sanctuary seeking backgrounds might find challenging. You can also train young people to support refugees and asylum seekers in their subjects and form groups. For example, having peer mentors or mental health ambassadors who can be paired up with new students to help them settle into the school, make a friend, and answer any questions that they might have.
It is important to acknowledge that although a refugee child may have had a highly tumultuous start to their life or have been engulfed in a traumatic situation, not all newly arrived refugee children will require immediate mental health support. However, it is important that schools can spot the signs that a child is struggling and be ready to support if necessary, especially as 40% of young people who have experienced war related trauma, go on to experience difficulties such as depression and anxiety and 11% suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Supporting Syrian refugee children who arrive in your school - sec-ed.co.uk). Young people may suffer from isolation and loneliness in their new environment. It is important to be able to spot the signs of this, and by following the guidance above such as providing peer mentors, you may be able to avoid such situations.
Schools can also allocate a key member of staff for new students during the first few weeks who can assist young people around the school building until they become familiar with the environment, answer any questions they may have and be a key contact for their parents/carers.
4. Don't separate new arrivals from other learners
Don’t separate children with English as an additional language from those for whom English is their main language. Mixing with these children will help children to pick up English more quickly. Young refugees and asylum seekers in secondary schools are often isolated or placed into lower sets for all subjects, only because they might not speak English as their first language, whereas they may have strong skills in other areas of the curriculum. Having limited English does not mean that a child will not have excellent numeracy and literacy in their home languages, and the school should have high expectations of all pupils, providing support to allow pupils to achieve their best.
5. Clear communications
Visual timetables support pupils to identify routines and know what’s happening throughout the day. Visuals should be culturally relevant and up to date.
Provide resources and communications to parents/carers in different languages and formats. Use the school website, newsletters, displays, posters and assemblies to show that the school welcomes refugees and asylum seekers and values all children and the contributions that they can make.
Avoid colloquialisms and abstract phrases. Keep instructions as clear as possible and provide scaffolded tasks. Educational apps such as Google Classrooms allow you to turn on live captions when presenting a PowerPoint. If this technology is available in your schools, it is very helpful to use.
6. Provide collaborative working opportunities
Prioritise interactive activities which encourage collaboration between pupils and help to speed up English language acquisition, for example, information gap activities and barrier games.
7. Let children know that it's ok to make mistakes
Children (and adults!) will sometimes avoid trying or attempting something for fear of getting it wrong. Create an environment where mistakes are accepted and welcomed as part of learning.
8. Educate young people about refugees and asylum seekers
There are opportunities to develop young people’s empathy and understanding of issues relating to refugees and migration in all areas of the curriculum, for example:
- English - literature, poetry, creative writing and drama can be used to explore issues of migration, racism, forced displacement and cultural identity.
- History and Geography - students can learn about the national and global events that affected immigration in Britain and contributed to today’s society.
- Art - shared human values can be shown to be reflected in different artistic traditions.
- Form time activities - share news and information about different families and cultures. Celebrate all festivals and use famous people who were/are refugees and asylum seekers to challenge stereotypes. For example, Rita Ora moved from Kosovo to London as a baby to escape violence due to political reasons, and Dua Lipa is the daughter of refugees from Kosovo. Prince Philip was also a refugee.
Young people should be supported to engage in critical thinking to help them decipher misinformation and disinformation about refugees and asylum-seeking communities. You can use current affairs to show young people that refugee and asylum-seeking communities are at risk of hate and prejudice in the media due to incorrect reporting and the dehumanisation of different people. For example, many media outlets will refer to refugee and asylum-seeking communities as ‘swarms’ and ‘floods’ and falsely report that the majority of the world’s refugees travel to the UK. This leads to questions such as ‘why does everyone come here?’. Supporting young people to research the facts behind their viewpoint helps to dispel misinformation and allows them to understand the importance of making sure that their opinions are underpinned by facts and how research can play an important role in this.
9. Celebrate all cultures and communities
This can be done all year round through assemblies, events and in lessons. You can also plan and host specific events during Refugee Week. Refugee Week happens every June and is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Schools can get involved by holding film screenings, running activities in school or taking part in larger community events. For more details about Refugee Week visit: https://refugeeweek.org.uk/
10. Engage in external awards and projects to demonstrate your commitment to creating a safe place for sanctuary-seeking people.
School of Sanctuary: You can engage with the School of Sanctuary, a network of over 1000 schools committed to creating a culture of welcome, understanding and belonging for those who are forced to flee. Schools can work towards a School of Sanctuary Award, which recognises good practices in fostering a culture of welcome, belonging, and solidarity for those seeking safety.
Anti-Racist Award by Leeds Beckett University: If you wish to develop a whole school approach to promote anti-racism, you can engage with the Anti-Racist Award launched by The Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) at Leeds Beckett University.
EqualiTeach Equalities Award: Finally, if you wish to develop and showcase your overall commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion across the whole school community you can sign up to the Equalities Award with us.
