Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Making it work in schools for refugee and asylum-seeking children
In May 2008, the Refugee Council published a report about refugee and asylum-seeking children in secondary schools, in which STAR collaborated.
The report titled, ‘Beyond the school gates: supporting refugee and asylum seekers in secondary school’ describes the troubles faced by refugee children in accessing education, such as delays in getting a place at school and being the new person in class. As the title suggests the report also focuses on support outside of school – parents and carers, refugee community organisations (RCOs) and local authorities – and how they can be supported to help their children succeed.
The report was the result of a 3-year project, funded by the KPMG Foundation. STAR was involved in interviewing young refugees for the project. The research recognised the rippling effect of not granting adult asylum seekers – as parents and carers – the right to work. For example it denies the means to afford school uniforms and stationery. Allowing parents and carers the right to work was one of the report’s final recommendations to the Home Office. Other recommendations included local authorities offering families all possible options for school applications by translating documents into their native languages and the Home Office to consider the impact on the child’s education and school community when deciding whether to remove asylum seekers.
A July issue of ‘Children & Young People Now’ magazine featured a secondary school in Essex as one of the pioneering models. Here, the situations facing asylum seekers and refugees are discussed openly in assemblies and classes and there is a strong partnership with local refugee community organisations (RCOs) to give specialist help to families.
For the full report please see the Refugee Council’s Inclusive Schools webpage
Posted by STAR team on 29/07/2008 at 01:09 PM
