Welcoming refugee children

Welcoming refugee children

Find out more about the experiences of refugee children in UK schools and how they make new connections in their communities. 

These resources have been developed and shared by teachers to help schools support refugees.

Refugee children joining your school may well have experienced trauma and have disturbing memories of leaving home and the journey that followed. They are now likely to be confronted with classes without a single familiar face and no-one speaking their own language.

Any pupil joining a school or class other than at the start of a key stage has a challenging transition facing them. For children from refugee families, whenever they start school, the challenge of fitting in is likely to be most acute.

In many ways, the task faced by teachers is the same with regard to all new children. The goal is to make them feel welcome, provide support, encourage friendships, and make sensitive assessments about language needs, learning needs and wellbeing.

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Refugee guides

The Welcoming refugee children to your school guide provides information about ways in which you can create a refugee-friendly school, make an accessible curriculum and think about some principles of effective practice (also available in Polish, French, Spanish and Bulgarian).

Find out more
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