BECOMING A SCHOOL OF SANCTUARY

A School of Sanctuary is a school that helps its pupils, staff and wider community understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and extends a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the community.

Fourteen schools in Norfolk have already achieved School of Sanctuary status and we have more than 60 schools actively involved in the local network.

Visit the Norfolk Schools of Sanctuary website for more information, resources and ideas on how you can be involved: www.norfolksos.co.uk

UPDATE ON NORFOLK WELCOMES & REFUGEE WEEK 2020

Norfolk Welcomes is our annual day of solidarity and learning in Norfolk schools that aims to build a culture or welcome and understanding for refugees and asylum seekers.

Due to the current circumstances, we have had to rethink our plans and have decided that this year’s Norfolk Welcomes, (which was scheduled to take place on Friday 12th June) will not take place in the form that we had planned it. We will however still be marking Refugee Week and hope that many of the schools in the network will join with us to take part in our Refugee Week projects, details of which you can find below.

It has been decided that due to the lock-down across the UK, Refugee Week this year will be a virtual festival, with events happening online. With this in mind, the Heritage Lottery Fund project Havens East, of which we are a part, will be creating an online multimedia exhibition to showcase the experiences of some Basque child refugees who in 1937 sought sanctuary from the Spanish Civil War and then spent time in East Anglia. It promises to be very exciting and more details of this will follow later in the year.

Using the stories of these Basque children as an inspiration, and in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University, we will also be encouraging schools in Norfolk and across the country to be part of our new initiative A Day of Welcome. This initiative has evolved from the Norfolk Welcomes project and, in a similar fashion, it aims to inspire schools and regions across the country to learn about refugee migration and build a culture of welcome for sanctuary seekers. It will also signpost exciting Refugee Week events happening the following week. This year A Day of Welcome will largely be an online event. We are currently finalising our plans for this and are in discussions with Amnesty International, Refugee Week and the national City of Sanctuary team about possible collaborations. We will be providing ideas, resources and activities for families and schools to be involved in a variety of ways.

To find out more about A Day of Welcome and to access the home learning resources visit here.