We achieved our School of Sanctuary Status in July 2025.
Across school we learnt what it means to be a place of safety and sanctuary in a welcoming and thoughtful way. We used our worship times, class discussions and reflected on characters' experiences in books that are in our school curriculum already to think about what experiences we all bring; recgonising our similarities and our differences across all nationalities and backgrounds. We recognise that we can all learn from each other and our school curriculum is reflective of this.
Our school vision of encouragement and building each other up links closely to being a place of sanctuary for those who need it. We are a welcoming school that supoports and encourages diversity.
We have school ambassadors - pupils who have been trained to welcome new children into our school.
We celebrate key events, including Refugee Week and Black History Month as well as Mental Health Week, Remembrance Days including Holocaust Memorial Day, Anti-Bullying and Kindness weeks.
We recognise that people come into our school community with a range of experiences and we welcome and learn from each other in a supportive and nurturing environment. We always think about our school values alongside teh Golden Rule of "treat others as we want to be treated" which permeates all religious and non-religious values.
We attended a celebration in which a group of our Year 6 children read work that they had written in their English lessons from the book "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan, taking the persepctive of arriving somewhere new and how this would make them feel. Another child reflected on a time that they were new to this school having come from South America (in both Spanish and in English) and another child performed a song beautifully about "Refuge" and helping each other when things are new or challenging.
We are proud of the way our children reflected the school of welcome that we are.