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Schools are often the first stable institution that refugee-background learners encounter, but they can also be a space of challenges, discrimination and exclusion. Predictable routines, warm relationships and clear, compassionate behaviour policies can reduce potential re-traumatisation and support learning for all pupils (). However, while a 2024 review of international trauma-sensitive school concepts for refugee students found promising practices, it also reported limited robust evidence of academic gains – urging careful implementation and evaluation (). In this blog post we identify five features of trauma‑informed schooling which support refugee‑background learners and strengthen relational, inclusive cultures for all students and staff.

Safety and predictability

What is understood is that a trauma-informed school begins first with safety and predictability. The focus is not only on students with diagnosed trauma, or only on refugees as those affected by trauma. Scholarship from Canada reminds us that schools can reproduce minority–majority tensions and unintentionally pathologise acculturation or resistance to inequity if they are not critically reflective (). A decolonial, inclusive stance – increasingly articulated in European scholarship – calls for whole-school approaches which interrogate power, avoid labels such as ‘victim’, and move beyond narrow, clinical paradigms towards relational, participatory cultures (). In practice, that looks like cocreated class norms, opt-out mechanisms for potentially triggering content, restorative responses to behaviour, and visible multilingual representation across the school – underpinned by strong principles of collaboration and empowerment (). This strengthens school cultures overall, including for learners without a refugee background and for educators themselves.

A welcoming climate

Second, schools should have welcoming climates which centre language justice. Refugee learners’ identities and aspirations are mediated through language. Research with refugee-background pupils in Algeria from sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates that validating ‘low prestige’ languages and challenging monolingual norms fosters agency, belonging and engagement (). A synthesis report by Refugee Education UK () of inclusive and sustainable promising practices in high-income contexts similarly emphasised the importance of language representation and welcoming climates – as well as targeted teacher training in supporting psychosocial wellbeing. Enabling students to draw on their full linguistic repertoires supports not only wellbeing and belonging but also learning and academic development.

‘Enabling students to draw on their full linguistic repertoires supports not only wellbeing and belonging but also learning and academic development.’

Psychosocial health supports

Third, it is crucial to integrate psychosocial health supports in and around school. Studies have identified higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among refugee children – albeit alongside considerable resilience (; ). They recommend stepped care, task-shifting and school-site access to reduce unmet needs. An early London project embedding an outreach mental health worker in a primary school reported reduced difficulties, underscoring the value of relational, family-linked, teacher-supported provision on site (). At systems level, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees () advocates for inclusion in national education with wraparound supports, to align school practice with health and social services.

Continuity and transition

Fourth, schools should focus on continuity and transition. Refugee-background learners’ trajectories are frequently interrupted and shaped by legal precarity. Evidence from a study with Syrian children showed that alongside high trauma exposure, children had strong aspirations – and that targeted language bridging, rapid placement and access to mental health care could sustain progression (). Policy briefs led by refugee youth advocates in England call for timely placement, fair admissions and data systems which do not penalise mobility (; ).

Asset-based mindset

Finally, schools should adopt a resilience-focused, anti-deficit lens. Immigrant and refugee youth’s resilience is often scaffolded by peer acceptance, academic engagement and identity affirmation (). Trauma-informed schooling for refugee-background learners, then, should be a commitment to rigorous, multi-level practice; to linguistic and cultural humility; and to relational, justice-oriented cultures where young people are seen as more than victims (; ).

Conclusion

Overall, trauma-informed schooling for refugee background learners must be a whole-school, culturally and linguistically responsive approach which places safety, belonging and agency at the centre – while resisting deficit labels and rigorously evaluating what works.

It is also vital to remember that refugee-background learners do not fundamentally differ in their needs, hopes and aspirations from other students – rather, their experiences highlight structural limitations in current education systems. From this angle, trauma-informed schooling becomes a call for system-wide change away from functionalist deficit thinking and towards empowerment, for everyone’s sake.