School of Sanctuary
What is a School of Sanctuary?
A School of Sanctuary is simply a school that makes sure every child and family feels safe, welcome and included. It might mean having a class discussion about kindness, starting a buddy scheme for new arrivals, or learning about different cultures. The aim is simple: to support children seeking sanctuary and to help all pupils grow up in a school community built on compassion and belonging.
School of Sanctuary at the Royal School
Community is a core value at The Royal School, central to everything we do. We are dedicated to fostering strong partnerships with families and the wider community to ensure that every child reaches their full potential and that families feel an integral part of our school. Often, we are the first point of contact for families needing support with housing, immigration, benefits, food banks, and educational guidance. Within our school, we offer in-house support through initiatives like the Butterfly Project, a community food bank, and a pre-loved uniform program. Additionally, for our EAL families, we provide bespoke weekly English lessons, helping them access our school gateway and develop their language skills.
We are excited to announce that we have achieved our School of Sanctuary accreditation.
Click here to discover more about Schools of Sanctuary
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Valentines Day Misinformation Messaging
We aware that some false and somewhat inflammatory material about the Schools of Sanctuary programme is circulating online. Contrary to what these misrepresentations claim, our experience is that this programme promotes compassion, understanding, and safety. We are proud to be a school where every child feels safe, where individual needs are understood, and where pupils are equipped to be kind and thoughtful members of our community.
The activity in question – presented in January 2024 well before we became a school of sanctuary and undertaken by only a handful of schools - did not involve children sending Valentine's Day cards to adults in the asylum system. In those schools pupils wrote short, anonymised messages to show support and solidarity. These were expressions such as “Welcome to our town” or “We hope you feel safe here.” The vast majority of these were displayed within the classroom, in a small number of cases, schools gave them to local refugee support groups. No personal information was shared, and the activity was age-appropriate, teacher-led, and in line with rigorous school safeguarding policies in those schools. The Royal School has not made use of this activity and carefully considers all activities in line with our own safeguarding policies and procedures.
