Supporting access and enrolment to school

Refugee pupils and their families may experience barriers to accessing schooling. They may arrive in a local area where they have no friends, family or members of their community. Many refugee families are unfamiliar with the English school system. Families may also lack information about local schools, enrolment and the secondary school curriculum. Some schools may be unsure about refugee pupils’ entitlements or how to meet their needs.

Pupils from refugee backgrounds have the same entitlement to education as all other children. Local Authorities (LAs) have a legal duty to ensure that education is available for all children of compulsory school age, appropriate to age, ability and aptitudes and any Special Educational Needs (SEN) they may have. This duty applies irrespective of a child's immigration status or rights of residence.

Good practice

Refugee children and families will benefit when school staff and other local services are aware of their entitlements, and work together to support their access to secondary school.

Refugee children and young people’s entitlement to schooling

Ensure practitioners are aware of refugee children’s entitlement. They will find information on the Refugee and asylum seekers’ children area of the teachernet and the Schooling 5-16 area of the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website.

School clothing grants, meals and free school travel and transport

Schools can help families apply for financial support.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) parentscentre website provides information on eligibility for:

free school meals

school uniforms

school travel and transport.

Make use of interpreters

Interpreters can support good communication between the school and the family. Guidance can be found on the Interpreting and translation area of the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website. Many LAs provide interpreting and translation services.

Provide information in community languages

Some LAs and schools ensure that information about the school and the curriculum is available in different languages. For example, the Dingle Granby Toxteth education action zone (EAZ) in Liverpool provided translated letters for schools. The EAZ sample letters can be found on the Primary Resources website. Users are able to customise common letters from school to home in 30 different languages.

Create a friendly and welcoming environment

School office staff have a particularly important role to play in ensuring refugee families are made welcome. School reception areas can provide displays that celebrate a school’s linguistic and cultural diversity. A personalised ‘Welcome to…’ poster is an approach some schools use. MantraLingua produce welcome posters in different languages. Parent meeting areas should be comfortable and allow confidentiality to be respected. Teachers can prepare for new pupils by making sure equipment and learning groups are prepared and inclusion in learning activities planned. Preparing for inclusion: a checklist for staff is available on the Pupil Mobility area of the Islington Ethnic Minority Achievement Service website . This serves as an aide memoire for teachers and support staff preparing for a new arrival.

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 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.

Welcoming new arrivals section includes:

• Initial information sharing
• Planning for the new arrivals
• Early communication with children new to English
• Buddies and designated adults
• Creating a welcoming environment

Establish clear admission procedures

Information about a pupil’s background experiences and prior learning should be gathered quickly, shared with appropriate school staff, and additional resources, including language support, provided. Class friends or ‘buddies’ need to be allocated so new arrivals receive help in learning school routines and where to go, with the opportunity for company, during break and lunchtimes. The peer support and friendships area of the site provides more information about this. Detailed guidance on developing Effective admission procedures can be found on the QCA Pathways to learning for new arrivals website.

Liaise promptly with a pupil’s new school if they move

Refugee children frequently move house and change schools in their first few months in the UK. Passing on records promptly can help maintain continuity in learning. The section on exit procedures in the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Managing Pupil Mobility: A handbook for induction mentors (.PDF) provides guidance on supporting children when they leave schools.

Provide advocacy and additional support

Some refugee families may have difficulty accessing the services they need. Many secondary schools have developed good links with local services and projects that work with refugee families. Schools can ensure that information about these services is accessible within the school. Schools can also direct or ‘signpost’ families to appropriate sources of support or make referrals for them. The multi-agency working area of this website provides further information and guidance.

Develop a whole school approach that supports all new arrivals

Support for refugee new arrivals is not the responsibility of individual staff working in isolation. Successful strategies promote shared responsibility and teamwork.

Case studies

Pupil Mobility Policy (.PDF)

Swanlea Business & Enterprise College, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, has developed a whole-school Pupil Mobility Policy to welcome and support new arrivals. The policy is downloadable and may be helpful to schools that are in the process of developing a policy.

Induction mentoring (.PDF)

Hounslow Manor School, in West London, receives new arrivals from overseas each year, many of whom are beginners of English. The majority of additional admissions are refugees or asylum seekers. The case study explores the role of the induction mentor and demonstrates how new arrivals are welcomed and supported effectively.

The Routes Project: Supporting access and enrolment in school in Manchester (.PDF)

The Routes Project provides support to refugee and asylum seeker families with children who are between 5 and 13 years old, who have arrived in the city during the last three years. The case study describes how the project provides assistance to families to access mainstream support services such as schools, GPs, dentists, housing services and benefits advice. The project also aims to help families become less isolated and excluded from society.

A multilingual DVD to support access to services (.PDF)

With funding from the European Refugee Fund, Haringey Refugee Education Team worked in partnership with other services and stakeholders to produce the Haringey Welcomes You DVD. The case study describes how the DVD was developed, what it contains and how it has supported the welcome and integration of newly arrived refugee families. 14 local primary and secondary schools also worked in partnership with the Photographers' Gallery as part of the 'Welcome' project.

Supporting the access and enrolment of Roma children (.PDF)

The Roma Education Project is a Children’s Society project in the London Borough of Newham, The case study describes how the project has supported the admission of Roma children into schools, and improved their integration and well-being.

‘Starting Point’: supporting Liberian and Congolese refugee children (.PDF)

A group of 81 Liberian and Congolese refugees were offered a new home in Bolton under the Gateway Protection Programme. The case study shows how the ‘Starting Point’ project supported the induction of children into schools, colleges and early years settings, and addressed the needs of children, young people and families.

To see Starting Point in action please see the Starting Point short film extracts.