Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking asylum. The theme for 2025 was “community as a superpower”, emphasising the role of community in bringing people together and bridging divides.

In school we held assemblies and tutor times focused on Refugee Week where we looked into the issues facing our asylum-seeking students and celebrating the contributions they make to our school community.

In English library lessons students learnt about the meaning of words such as refuge, refugee and community and thought about what each one means to them. Students read extracts from books about the refugee experience and discussed how reading is an important tool for developing inclusion and empathy as well as celebrating diversity.

In the library, (after some technical issues!) we watched Paddington.

Michael Bond, the author of the book Paddington, was inspired by real-life refugees. Michael Bond was a child during the Second World War and spoke of seeing child evacuees from London relocated to his home town, arriving at the station with labels around their necks and small suitcases. This image stayed with him, later influencing the creation of Paddington. 

We also had friendship bracelet-making workshops with creative students making some beautiful bracelets. All donations are going to New Routes, a local refugee charity.

Did you know?

Many Norwich families can trace their ancestry back to the Dutch and Flemish refugees who settled in the city back in the 16^th century. Known as “the strangers”, these refugees were escaping religious persecution. Skilled weavers, they brought a financial boom to the city - so much so Norwich became second only to London in terms of wealth.

Many thanks to Mrs Oz for organising!