Becoming a School of Sanctuary

In 2022, we were extremely delighted to achieve the City of Sanctuary, School of Sanctuary award. 

What is a School of Sanctuary? 

A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for those seeking sanctuary. Here at Waun wen Primary School, we are committed to helping those who need a safe place. We aim to provide all children, from different backgrounds, with an equal opportunity to feel welcome and be a part of an inclusive and safe environment. A School of Sanctuary finds practical ways to show their commitment to the human right to sanctuary while educating the entire school community about it. 

Why have we become a School of Sanctuary?
 

As a school, we wanted to achieve this award because we believe that being recognised as a safe and secure environment for all demonstrates our commitment to our inclusive vision. We believe that educating our children about the right to sanctuary will enable us as a school to accept everyone for who they are and understand that we are all equal members of the community. 

Children and staff have learned about why people become refugees and asylum seekers, and the challenges they may face in our world today through whole school and phased assemblies, and lessons in class. We believe that it is vitally important to learn about and understand these issues because of the impact we can have as a school. We have experienced many families who have become a part of our Waun Wen family who have needed Sanctuary and we are proud to offer that safe and welcoming environment.

Creating a Swansea Logo
 

We are very grateful and proud to be a part of a project that enabled us to help create our Swansea Schools of Sanctuary logo. In order to create this logo, we had to think about what sanctuary means to us as a school and come up with a variety of words to represent it. Four pupils from our school were lucky enough to visit the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, where they participated in a variety of exercises where they demonstrated their creative and artistic sides. Our children thoroughly enjoyed working alongside several other schools in order to create our fantastic logo.  
 

Refugee Week  
 

As a school, we celebrate refugee week and participate in a range of activities that focus specifically on refugees and asylum seekers. Each year group within our school take part in different activities known as ‘simple acts’ which allows individuals to inspire others by demonstrating creative ways to support refugees. Here are some of the activities below: 

What goes on at Waun Wen Primary School?
 

In order to achieve the School of Sanctuary award, we had to demonstrate the range of the wonderful procedures that are in place to support those who seek sanctuary. All staff and pupils within our school work extremely hard to ensure that each procedure is beneficial for those who need it.

Pop-up shop
 

We provide parents and children of the school with the opportunity to purchase a range of items from our pop-up shop. Parents and children are encouraged to fill a carrier bag with items they need for a small fee. Items available include a range of different food products, cleaning products and clothing of all sizes. 

We have created the pop-up shop to help those who may find it difficult to purchase these items elsewhere due to rising costs. We also want to help families in our community and show them that we can be a point of contact and support. 

Language of the Month 
 

Every month we celebrate and learn a different language. We learn these new languages to show those from different countries that we are committed to making them feel welcome at our school. We have children who can speak the new language help to deliver assemblies to the rest of the school. We have a language of the month display which shows the language that is being learned and we have our words and phrases displayed in our classrooms. 

For more information regarding Schools of Sanctuary, please see the link below.  

https://schools.cityofsanctuary.org/