Supporting Afghan Refugee Children in Schools

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:45 - 17:00 British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Register here.

This free webinar hosted by The Bell Foundation and Refugee Education UK will focus on how schools can support children from Afghanistan.

About this event

This webinar is a special joint event between The Bell Foundation and Refugee Education UK (REUK), a charity which aims to support young refugees in building positive futures by thriving in education. Developed in response to last summer’s crisis in Afghanistan, this webinar helps participants to:

• Recognise how Afghan students will be impacted by forced displacement and their previous experience of education.
• Identify academic and wellbeing challenges for resettled Afghan children and young people.
• Develop compassionate and effective interventions appropriate to the context of Afghan students.

This webinar is aimed at teachers and other staff working in primary and secondary school settings or working to support them. Drawing on up-to-date information and research on the resettlement of young Afghans in the UK, as well as REUK’s extensive experience working with young Afghans over the past 10 years, this webinar will:

• Provide an introduction to supporting Afghan students who arrive in your school, college or organisation.
• Describe the range of previous educational and displacement experiences of newly resettled Afghan families.
• Explain the educational implications for newly arrived students with a focus on barriers to progress and achievement.
• Outline practical strategies that individuals and organisations can adopt to overcome these challenges with children and young people.
• Share details of resources from REUK, The Bell Foundation and other partners that can help when engaging with Afghan families and developing policies and practices.

The webinar will be delivered by two REUK staff members, Katie Barringer and Hamid Khan.

It will begin earlier than the Foundation’s usual webinars in order to allow extra time for questions at the end. If you have any questions related to the webinar topic which you would like answered during the live session, please send them to: webinar@bell-foundation.org.uk

Who should register for the webinar?

• Primary and secondary school teachers.
• Support staff.
• EAL co-ordinators.
• Inclusion leads.
• School leaders.

Why you should register for this webinar:

• A great opportunity for participants to have direct access to expert advice on learners using EAL who have arrived from Afghanistan.
• Ability to pose questions regarding support for children from Afghanistan.
• Time-saving, one-hour intensive session with an extra 15 minutes for Q&A.
• Access to session recording.
• First to hear about future webinars and how to sign up.

If the webinar is full, please complete the Wait List form and you will be contacted if a place becomes available. Everyone on the Wait List will be sent a copy of the webinar recording.

Biographies:

Katie Barringer leads REUK’s Educational Progression programme which equips young asylum seekers and refugees with the advice, information, guidance and support they need to access education in the UK at all stages of their education journeys – from primary and secondary school to further and higher education. Since joining REUK seven years ago, Katie has also overseen the expansion of our mentoring programme from a London-based service to a project operating across four other cities and taken a lead on the development and delivery of REUK’s training for those supporting and promoting refugee education. Her role at REUK builds on her previous career in senior management in UK prisons followed by work in Asia with gang members recovering from drug addiction.

Hamid Khan, himself originally from Afghanistan, is the Education Welcome Project Officer at Refugee Education UK. He provides practical, logistical and administrative support to our newest project which extends our educational support to hundreds of newly arrived refugees. Before joining REUK, Hamid worked in business development for a range of organisations at different stages of their journeys. Hamid joined REUK with a deep understanding of how the organisation has grown, having first met REUK as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child some years ago. Since then, he has served as REUK’s longest-serving Chair of the Youth Advisory Board. He graduated from the University of Brighton with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Hamid believes in equality and diversity, especially when it comes to the education rights of young people displaced by conflict.

Joining Instructions:

Joining Instructions will be sent to all attendees 90 minutes before the webinar. Please check your ‘junk’ folder if you have not received this information by 2.15 pm on Wednesday 14 September.

We recommend that you access the session at 3.30pm on Wednesday 14 September as the technical team will be available to assist if you have any questions.

Ticket sales end 1.45 pm Wednesday 14 September.

Important Notice: there are only two websites authorised to promote and take bookings for this event run by The Bell Foundation. These are: The Bell Foundation’s website and Eventbrite. Please do not book, or express interest in, this event through any other website.