Birmingham now has ten Schools of Sanctuary! The latest to be given the award are Allens Croft Primary School and Moseley School & Sixth Form – which is our first secondary School of Sanctuary!

Allens Croft impressed us with their activities in all year groups, including reception, and their detailed plans for the next academic year. Allens Croft came to our attention when they independently took the initiative to take part in a schools debate on “City of Sanctuary” organised by Birmingham City Council in April 2017, and things just progressed from there. This year, their Refugee Week overlapped with their Geography Week, and they allocated a continent to each year group which included finding out who refugees were treated in other parts of the world. Some of the classes also had poetry workshops, and all classes took part in a Climate Refugee project, thinking about what it must mean to be forced to leave your home because of climate change.

Moseley School has been working on Refugee issues for some time now, as their Sixth Form “Rights Respecting Ambassadors” chose to focus on Article 22 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, looking at the rights of refugee children. The sixth-formers carried out a whole-school survey to establish the level of knowledge of both pupils and staff, and also their points of view. This formed the basis of some of the work during Refugee Week. They work closely with the Human Relief Foundation, which provided interactive workshops and videos. It was clear to us that in this very large secondary school and sixth form, the commitment to supporting asylum-seekers and refugees is embedded throughout at all levels, from the youngest pupil in year 7 right up to the Head Teacher. Moseley School has offered to host a networking meeting for all the secondary schools in our Schools of Sanctuary project.

We look forward to continuing cooperation with both of these great schools!