Learn
Governors’ senior leadership and Staff
All governors and the senior leadership team have had presentations and updates on sanctuary and asylum issues. This has included sharing knowledge of the current world situation of refugees – where people flee from, why they leave and the problems they face. The presentations also included the local situation of our borough of Stockton and why the borough has a relatively large number of people seeking sanctuary. The governors and SLT were supportive of why the school – relatively well healed – high achieving, needed to develop this work. The school is committed to preparing our students now about the real world in which they live, and being better informed citizens. Having the support of governors and senior leaders is valuable in working towards the award.
Staff
Presentations about the award have been given at staff meetings. PowerPoints and handouts covered why people become refugees, where they come from, why some come to Stockton and why they need protection.
A staff CPD group was set up and met five times in the year of working for the award. They had training in issues related to refugees and people seeking asylum. Representatives from charities who support refugees: Justice First, Red Cross and the local food bank gave presentations about their work. The group heard the testimony of a refugee – the issues he faced both as a person seeking sanctuary and also after being granted the right to remain.
Resources relevant to all departments was sourced and these have been shared on the internal staff website- SharePoint. Some are general resources from charities including the Red Cross, Amnesty International, BBC film clips which provided the basis for lessons and gave staff more detailed knowledge – facts and figures, case studies and testimonies. Other resources on asylum and refugee issues are subject specific and web folders for each area of the curriculum contain relevant sources staff can use of their lessons. This means that hard pressed staff do not have to spend hours searching for teaching materials.
Students: curriculum
Across the curriculum students learn about why people seek sanctuary (asylum), the traumas they face and the ongoing problems once they arrive in a country of safety. They learn about negative stereotypes, challenge myths and learn about why people seek sanctuary, where they come from and why they may arrive in Britain. Refugees visit the school to share their testimony with students in lessons and also in assemblies. Resources have been developed, are shared for all subjects to use and the library has a range of books for students from year 7 to 13 of refugee stories or written by refugees. Subject which have developed very detailed schemes of work, lesson plans and resources about sanctuary and refugee issues so far include Drama, English, Mathematics and PHSE. We anticipate more departments developing and adapting their schemes in the following terms.
Displays around the school are now more representative of our wider community, for example a MFL display celebrates Arabic language and culture which several of our students can speak. A useful resource to develop basic phrases of languages from around the world is language of the month: www.newburyparkschool.net/langofmonth/index.html
A display about Syria and the refugee crisis was produced for history and politics area by a year 12 student. Whilst Black history Month was celebrated by many departments and the library. The librarian at school has fully supported the school of sanctuary award by purchasing over £300 of new stock to reflect refugee stories and poetry both about the issue and written by refugees. Likewise great displays have been done by the librarian for refugee week.
