A Day of Welcome is an annual day of solidarity and learning in schools that aims to build a culture of welcome and understanding for people seeking sanctuary. Celebrated by over 530 schools and tens of thousands of pupils in 2023, it’s designed to support teachers in kickstarting Refugee Week by providing free live events, resources and activities for teachers and pupils of all ages.
Our Aims
- Support schools to foster a culture of welcome, belonging and solidarity for those seeking safety.
- Help teachers to uncover and share stories of refugee migration, local and global, past and present.
- Assist schools to better educate and support refugee pupils and their families.
Register here for our fully-funded live events. This year these include teacher CPD and events for both primary and secondary schools sharing the work and experiences of people seeking sanctuary.
Download the teachers’ guide for this year, listing all of the resources, guidance and supporting materials for A Day of Welcome.
What is A Day of Welcome?
Founded by teachers in Norfolk, and developed in partnership with Schools of Sanctuary and Anglia Ruskin University, A Day of Welcome is open to any school, from nursery to Sixth Form across, the UK. This year, it will be celebrated on Friday 14th June, ahead of Refugee Week (17th-23rd June 2024
Participating schools will be granted access to a bank of carefully curated activities, teaching resources, training opportunities and exclusive live events that they can pick and choose from. In previous years, these have included live webcasts with authors Dina Nayeri, Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed, Michael Rosen, Miriam Halahmy. If you would like to find out more, please visit here: News — Norfolk Schools of Sanctuary.
We also provide resources that are tailored to the contexts of various local areas and counties, from Norwich to Cardiff and beyond, that help school communities to understand how people seeking safety have played a part in making their own cities, towns and neighborhoods the places they are today. We all have a role to play in fostering a culture of kindness and, as the centre of our communities, the potential impact of schools is huge. We empower teachers to unlock this potential by facilitating a range of learning resources and by connecting schools with their wider networks of welcome.
For teachers, we also provide a range of Refugee Education resources and training events to help them better educate and support refugee pupils and their families.
Our Refugee Education partners include UNHCR, Refugee Education UK, Amnesty International and the Bell Foundation, and our bespoke teacher training has included live events with the International Rescue Committee. Find out more about our Resources…
Why sign up for A Day of Welcome?
You will gain access to the following:
- A Teachers’ Guide – a summary of all our resources, opportunities and events (labelled by Key Stage level) to help your school celebrate Refugee Week 2024.
- A Teacher’s Toolkit – access to a folder of research-informed & teacher-approved materials and resources to deliver assemblies, lessons and workshops on forced displacement.
- ·One-off online events and workshops – including live author events for pupils and Refugee Education events for teachers.
- Unique resources, facts and information about stories of forced migration from your local community.
Note: Our Toolkit, Teachers’ Guide & Webcast registrations will be launched on the 23rd April 2024
Our aspiration is to help every school to be a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for everyone, including those seeking sanctuary. Will you join us?
A Day of Welcome is organised in collaboration with
