Meeting the needs of all children

Schools have a responsibility to provide a curriculum that meets the specific needs of individuals and groups of children, including refugees. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a duty on s chools to work towards the elimination of unlawful racial discrimination and the promotion of equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups. The Equality and Human Rights Commission provides guidance to assist schools meet their duties under the Act.

The National Curriculum statutory inclusion statement explains how schools can make the curriculum more inclusive by:

• Setting suitable learning challenges
• Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs and
• Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.

Refugee children come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Contextual information on the previous experiences of new arrivals from more than 40 countries can be found on the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website. Refugee children may have literacy skills in other languages, and may already have attended school in the UK and other countries. Some may never have attended school or may have gaps in their learning. They may be managing difficult transitions at home as well as at school.

Good practice

Primary schools that have high expectations of all pupils, ensure their progression and engage them actively in the learning process, will be best placed to meet the needs of refugee children.

Resources to support curriculum induction

Hampshire Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Service provides guidance on key support strategies and activities for primary new arrivals to ensure participation in the curriculum.

Newcastle Ethnic Minority Traveller and Refugee Achievement Service has produced welcome booklets for children in Czech, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Initial assessment

The initial assessment of language and curriculum skills can assist practitioners in considering pupils’ needs and in planning for their inclusion and achievement. Guidance on Initial assessment of new arrivals’ language and curriculum skills can be found on the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website.

New Arrivals Excellence Programme: Primary and Secondary National Strategies (NAEP)

NAEP website

The website offers guidance, provides answers to frequently asked questions and provides links to other useful websites. The following guidance can be downloaded from the website.. 

NAEP Guidance

This document for primary and secondary schools aims to support schools in developing their provision for newly arrived pupils; whole school planning, welcoming, initial assessments, teaching and learning strategies and promoting children’s participation.

New Arrivals Excellence Programme: DVD and case studies - a resource to support the development of induction procedures for new arrivals. The DVD is available on request.

The Beginners in English as an additional language website, funded by Slough EAZ and Equality Services, provides help to teachers and support staff. Early assessment can help identify children who may need extra support, including children who may have special educational needs (SEN). Staff can then plan to overcome any barriers the pupil may face.

Initial assessment can also enable teachers to plan to meet the needs of individual children. They can then ensure each child experiences success by modifying the curriculum to ensure their access and participation. For guidance on Modifying and adapting the curriculum see the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website.

Information about prior learning on admission

The supporting access and enrolment to school area of this website includes information about admission procedures and suggests ways of ensuring good communication with new arrivals on admission. Schools can gather important information at the admission meeting with new arrivals and their parents, including information about the child’s prior learning. Some schools have developed certificates of prior learning to acknowledge children’s prior attainment and recognise achievement.

Have high expectations of refugee children

Refugee children can be placed in learning groups that help them reach their potential. Being new to English does not mean they cannot attain in other subjects.

The duty to promote race equality: A guide for Schools (.PDF)

This guide supports the Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality and has been written mainly for the governing bodies of maintained schools and other educational institutions maintained by local authorities (LAs), which are also bound by the duty.

Refugee children who are literate in another language may, for example, be able to access mathematics and science tasks by using a bilingual dictionary. Bilingual dictionaries are available from a range of sources. The Subjects area of the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website includes links to organisations which produce bilingual dictionaries that support different curriculum areas.

Monitoring progress

Some schools deploy Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) teachers, induction mentors, learning mentors, teaching assistants or other support staff to track and monitor progress. Settling-in forms can be developed to track progress. These can be completed at intervals during the child’s initial weeks in school.

CEA@Islington’s EMAS website includes examples of tracking and reviewing progress forms developed by Pooles Park Primary School. These can be downloaded by scrolling down the case studies to the name of the school.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families induction mentor’s toolkit in appendix (1) Managing Pupil Mobility: A handbook for induction mentors provides free downloads of settling-in reports, tracking forms and progress review forms.

Assessment for learning can also assist in determining new children’s strengths, areas of development, preferred learning styles and learning potential. The Assessment for learning area of the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website provides further guidance.

Provide effective pastoral support

The supporting access and enrolment to school, multi-agency working and promoting emotional well-being areas of this website suggest ways of ensuring new refugee children and their families access support for their immediate and wider needs. As refugee children may have multiple social needs, schools need to ensure their staffs are trained in understanding the range of potential needs and responding to them. Agencies working with refugees, such as the Refugee Council, Salusbury WORLD, as well as ethnic minority achievement services, can offer training to school staff. Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) may also be able to offer help and advice to schools.

Case study

Welcoming newly arrived refugee children (.PDF)

The case study describes how two Newcastle primary schools worked together on a pioneering scheme to ensure that new arrivals would receive a warm welcome and the support they needed in order to integrate into their schools and local community.