The Government is committed to securing improved access and additional educational support to enable all children to achieve their potential. The children of asylum seekers and refugees should have the same opportunity to access education as all other children. There is a broad recognition that teaching the children of asylum seekers and refugees can be both challenging and rewarding: newly arrived children from overseas need help to settle in and they can greatly enrich the school community.
In October 2003 Schools Minister Stephen Twigg launched Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils – A strategy to tackle the under-achievement of minority ethnic pupils, including the children of asylum seekers and refugees. All children and young people should be able to achieve their potential, whatever their ethnic and cultural background and whichever school they attend.
Integration of Refugee Children: Good Practice in Educational Settings
This website has been developed by the Home Office and the DCSF. It promotes the integration of refugee children and families, in and through educational settings. The website is designed for the range of professionals working with children and young people. It provides information, guidance and examples of effective practice. The Education Guild has managed the development of the website and a series of road shows about the website will take place from September 2006.
There is commitment to supporting schools to help these children settle in, acquire English language skills and enjoy full access to the National Curriculum.
It is not possible to state how many children from asylum seeking and refugee backgrounds attend school. The most recent estimate, from the Refugee Council, is that there are 82,000 children attending schools in England, of which over 62,000 are in the Greater London area.
There are also approximately 6,035 unaccompanied asylum seeker children, of which the vast majority are in London and the South East.
It is Government policy that the children of asylum seekers and refugees are given the same opportunity to access education as all other children.
Local Authorities have a legal duty to ensure that education is available for all children of compulsory school age, appropriate to age, ability, aptitudes and any special educational needs they may have. This duty applies irrespective of a child's immigration status or rights of residence in a particular area.
Schools receive funding for children of asylum seekers and refugees in the same way as they do for all other children on the school roll, through the Education Formula Spending Share (EFSS).
