Pentrehafod School became the first school in Wales to be awarded School of Sanctuary status in 2013.

We were awarded School of Sanctuary status because we could clearly demonstrate that our school welcomed asylum seeker and refugee children and families into our school community.

We were able to demonstrate that our school enabled our community to ‘Learn about what it means to be seeking sanctuary’. Pupils from our school, including asylum seeker and refugee pupils and their families participated in a project called ‘Media Memories’. The project produced a dvd and display for the Waterfront Museum in Swansea that looked at, ‘the cultures and backgrounds of pupils in Pentrehafod school, community groups and people and places of interest in Swansea’. It was imperative to the school that all of our school community learnt and understood about why sanctuary is sought in the UK. As a natural component to our studies in school we invited various organisations such as Displaced People in Action, Welsh Refugee Council and City of Sanctuary to our school. Pupil voice told us,

‘I learned that it’s not easy being a refugee and leaving your country. The workshop changed my point of view and made me think about refugees and how we should treat them fairer.’

Pentrehafod demonstrated that we, ‘take positive action to embed the concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion within our school and within the wider community’ through having specific policies such as our Ethnic Minority/EAL learners poicy which reaffirms the inclusive education pupils receive and the type of support they may require based upon sound principles. Pentrehafod also has a policy ‘Procedure for Welcoming EAL/AS learners’ to our school. This policy has proven successful in making links between the home and school and includes this group of learners in every aspect of our school life. Pentrehafod does not shy away from the fact that racist incidents do occur in society have a specific procedure for dealing with racist incidents. This is rigorously enforced.