Bristol City of Sanctuary – Redefining a city of welcome

Laughter and music reverberate around the museum, as children from across the city gather to celebrate something quietly revolutionary: the recognition of their schools as places of sanctuary.

They have been brought together by Bristol City of Sanctuary (BCoS), a small charity with a bold vision that every person seeking refuge in Bristol feels safe, welcomed and valued.

Working across schools, businesses, arts organisations, faith groups and local government, BCoS supports institutions to create spaces that welcome people from forced displacement backgrounds, and actively celebrate their contributions made to Bristol life. By fostering greater understanding, empathy and solidarity across differences, the charity aims to strengthen race equality and community cohesion in a modern-day climate where migrant communities can face hostility.

It does this by promoting a framework based around the central streams of Learn, Embed and Share:

• Learn: encouraging organisations to understand the experiences, rights and needs of refugees and asylum seekers, such as supporting their wellbeing and signposting them towards employment assistance and entitlement to free school meals;
• Embed: focusing on integrating those insights into policy and practice. In schools, this means adapting curriculums, training staff and integrating understanding of sanctuary issues across all subjects, and the representation of people with lived experience in governance and leadership roles; and
• Share: facilitating organisations to communicate their progress publicly, to engage the wider community in supporting and celebrating the integration of sanctuary seekers, especially during Refugee Week.

BCoS works with schools in particular to take an early approach in preventing and managing issues felt by some of their most vulnerable children and families at risk in the city.

Adele Owen, charity director, said “It is more important than ever that schools have the resources, guidance and support necessary to safeguard the physical and emotional integrity of their pupils, while celebrating the diversity of the student body.”

Achieving the Sanctuary Award is not only of symbolic importance for schools, they use the framework to develop their policy and practice to enhance the experiences of sanctuary-seeking pupils, whilst also encouraging buy-in from senior leadership and parent/carer communities.

This year, with the help of a £2,000 charitable grant from SMV, BCoS was able to significantly scale its annual Schools of Sanctuary Awards Ceremony, which was hosted free of charge by We the Curious, the science and arts centre on Bristol’s Harbourside.

In addition to covering the event’s staff and catering costs, the grant allowed the organisers to enlist a panel of senior education advisors and experts to assess the sanctuary applications submitted by schools. BCoS also commissioned a photographer and musicians from the Dovetail Orchestra – themselves refugees building new lives in Bristol – and Sukina Noor, Bristol’s City Poet, whose work explores themes of homecoming, belonging, and what Bristol means to its people, to deliver a keynote speech.

Seven schools – Ashton Park Secondary, Filton Avenue Nursery, Hillcrest Primary, Parson Street Primary School, St Bernard’s Catholic Primary, St Francis’ Catholic Primary and St Brendan’s Sixth Form College – received the award, the culmination of a journey taken by each one to embed inclusivity, compassion and understanding in their everyday practice.

The impact of the event was profound.

100 people attended the ceremony, including 30 pupils and parents/carers, school staff, and key stakeholders from the education and voluntary sectors. Sanctuary-seeking pupils, some of whom rarely feel safe enough to leave their accommodation, were brought into the heart of this event, a safe space where they felt valued and celebrated. They made badges and formed friendships with peers from other schools who shared their languages and stories, helping to foster a sense of belonging in Bristol. They were invited to explore the exhibitions at the museum, and left knowing that they were welcome to visit again.

Alongside these friendships being made, connections were forged between the schools, who are building a network of support and solidarity, strengthening the charity’s vision of Bristol as a true city of sanctuary.