Schools of Sanctuary
We are delighted to announce that here at Burley we have officially signed the pledge to work towards becoming a School of Sanctuary! This step emphasises our commitment to fostering an even more inclusive and nurturing environment for all our pupils and their families.
The School of Sanctuary Award is given to schools in recognition of their good practice in fostering a safe and inclusive school environment, building understanding and empathy towards people seeking safety and working collaboratively to strengthen community approaches to welcoming refugee children and families.
LEARN
At Burley we are committed to ensuring our pupils learn what it means to be seeking sanctuary. We learn about this through Collective Worship, through hearing the stories of people who have sought sanctuary (including those in our own classes) and through our lessons in PSHE and English.
We spend time addressing these themes at key times such as Refugee Week and Gypsy Roma Traveller Month and give our pupils the opportunity to explore and develop their ideas. We have developed English units of work on migration, PSHE lessons on diversity and human rights as well as English, Geography and History topics that educate our pupils about the plight of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
As a church school, we learn about Jesus the refugee, and read stories of refugees in the Bible. We even learn about animal migration and are working with Leeds Swifts to provide swift boxes for this amazing bird which migrates thousands of miles every year as part of its natural behaviour - we learn about animal migration in science lessons and about human migration through history and geography.
Furthermore, whole school and in-class Collective Worship times are given over for presentations and talks to further address these issues. We have purchased specific books and have a good collection of literature in our library to educate both pupils and staff about sanctuary.
Staff attend regular training to ensure that everyone feels confident to support children who are seeking sanctuary seeking, including Unconscious Bias training and access to an area in the staffroom with literature and books to support them. All staff at Burley are trained in Trauma-Informed Practice.
EMBED
We are a welcoming and inclusive school with an established welcome and induction policy that enables quick integration and informs all staff of pupil needs. Families and students are supported through translated materials, welcome meetings, an EAL teaching assistant, buddies and EAL mentors.
Celebrating the many different backgrounds and cultures of the pupils at our school is a key part of the ethos of our school. Displays and regular events such as Collective Worships themed around celebrations from around the world enable students to both share their own culture and learn about others.
SHARE
We are constantly developing ways to share the School of Sanctuary vision with the wider community. We have a uniform exchange and systems set up to ask for donations to support new families in need of items. Our governors are fully supportive and take an active role in the work we do and we update our parents about our work in our half termly newsletter.
We are proud of our good practice surrounding EAL and inclusion and regularly work with other schools to share our ideas and resources, even as far afield as Darlington.
If you want to know more about the School of Sanctuary award please click this link
Work from Year 5 on migration
