Promoting the participation of refugee parents

Investing in partnerships with parents and their communities can be a key element in making a school more inclusive and can make a real difference for children who may be at risk of underachieving. Children achieve more when schools and parents work together. Parents can help more effectively if they know what the school is trying to achieve and how they can help.

Parental Involvement This Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) website offers guidance on how to achieve effective partnership with parents and how best to manage and use home-school agreements.

Given the necessary support, refugees can become full and active members of their local community. Not only does this help support their integration, it also helps build cohesive communities. Schools are well placed to help refugee parents increase their understanding of the society in which they live and to deploy their talents and skills effectively so they can participate fully in the life of the school and the wider community.

Community Cohesion Standards for Schools (2004). This is Home Office guidance on how to promote community cohesion within schools through tackling discrimination and promoting good race relations whilst also focusing on raising educational attainment levels. The Government, through its strategy to increase race equality and community cohesion, Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society, wishes to maximise the potential benefits of diversity to our society and economy and address the challenges diversity can bring through:

• Promoting inclusive notions of citizenship and belonging
• Eradicating racism and extremism
• Tackling inequality and opening opportunities for all
• Building cohesive communities.

Good practice

By supporting the active participation of refugee parents in school and community life, schools can help improve the attainment of refugee children and foster positive inter-community relationships.

A warm welcome in school

The supporting access and enrolment to school area of this website gives guidance on ensuring all parents experience a warm welcome.

Involving Parents, Raising Achievement (IPRA) toolkit contains information and ideas to help teachers develop successful home-school links with parents from diverse backgrounds. Although it was written with secondary schools in mind, most of the ideas contained in the booklet apply equally well in primary and special schools. It can be downloaded from teachernet.

Build positive relationships

The celebrating diversity area of this website provides guidance on creating opportunities for teaching and learning about refugees, and developing positive relationships between children and parents from diverse backgrounds.

Tackle racism

A school and its surrounding area need to be a safe place for refugee parents and children to come to. Schools need to be transparent in their dealing with racism and vigilant in their recording of racist incidents. Though schools will aspire to having no racist incidents reported, they will need to scrutinise reasons for this, checking if lack of pupil and parent confidence in procedures, lack of awareness or poor reporting procedures are failing to identify incidents of racism. The celebrating diversity area of this website has more information on this.

Value parents’ knowledge and experience

Refugee parents can, for example, help extend the school’s knowledge of different languages and cultures. They can provide useful advice as to how schools can help children acclimatise to life in the UK.

Working with parents area of the teachernet provides guidance.

Partnership with Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs)

RCOs can help refugee parents overcome the barriers they face and also help schools plan for the participation of refugee parents.

QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals provides guidance working effectively with Community groups. Local refugee forums, including agencies and services working with refugees, will have information about how to get in touch with RCOs.

The parentscentre website

parentscentre is a resource for parents and carers who want to help their children learn. It offers support, information and advice about children’s learning and the English education system. A range of publications can also be accessed through the site – many are translated into different languages.It is important that parents are aware of this website.

Parents supporting children’s learning

Many refugee parents are educated and have professional qualifications and skills that can support their child’s progress in school and in the completion of homework. The Homework section of the parentscentre website provides guidance on ways that parents can help their children to learn. Parents without educational qualifications are equally committed to helping their children but may require additional support in accessing and understanding the parentscentre website. Time devoted to supporting parents in this endeavour will be time well spent.

Involve parents in school activities

The guidance on the parental involvement and family learning area of this website shows how schools can involve refugee parents in school life by helping them overcome barriers they face and through encouraging them to enrol on family learning programmes. The role of the school governing body and contributing to the community through membership of the school governing body areas of this website provide information on how refugee parents can be encouraged to participate by becoming school governors.

Many refugee parents may be attracted by the less formal events and activities organised by a school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Social events such as musical evenings, fashion shows, fairs and fetes can help new parents feel part of the school community. Some PTAs organise i nternational events that include a community meal – in which everyone is asked to bring a dish representing their community.

National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA) publishes a useful Getting People Involved leaflet.

Volunteering in school

Volunteering is an enjoyable way for refugees to improve their English, meet new people, gain work experience and contribute to school life.

A – Z of Volunteering and Asylum is a handbook that provides helpful information and guidance for school managers who may want to encourage refugee parents to volunteer in school. Some schools have benefited from refugee parents supporting learning in the classroom under the supervision of the teacher, for example by deploying their bilingual skills to support reading activity.

Guide to Volunteering for Refugees and Asylum Seekers is available in: English, Amharic, Arabic, Farsi, French, Kurdish (Sorani), Somali, Tigrinya and Urdu . It gives some basic information about how to chose an opportunity and guidance on some rights, responsibilities and expectations for both the volunteer and the organisation. The Volunteer Centre Sheffield Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project produce it .

Parents seeking a pathway into teaching

Many refugees have a background of working in education, some as teachers in their home countries.

The Employability Forum has developed a strategy that will provide a framework for ongoing work to facilitate the integration of refugees with teaching backgrounds into the education workforce in England. London Metropolitan University provides a Routes into Employment in Schools for Refugees programme that aims to develop skills within the refugee community for meeting the current challenges in the area of education of refugee children and forging stronger links between refugee communities and schools.

Education, employment and training opportunities

The multi-agency working area of this website provides guidance on finding out about local services for refugees. Schools can put refugee parents in contact with services such as Education Action and the Refugee Assessment and Guidance Unit (RAGU). Local RCOs may also provide support for refugees to access training and education courses that lead to employment. For example, the Yemeni Economic and Training Centre in Sheffield offers refugees the chance to access IT and basic skills courses. It also provides family support groups, a carers project and entry-level qualifications in English. 

It was the first centre in South Yorkshire to be awarded Beacon status by the Home Office.

Case study

Enabling refugees to utilise their skills (.PDF)

Education Leeds worked with partners to address the under-representation of black and minority ethnic teachers in Leeds schools. The case study explains how the project trained adult refugees to gain employment in primary and secondary schools. In addition to the training and support that was provided to participants, guidance was given to other organisations about what they could learn from the project. Profiles of students who accessed the course are also provided.