A Day of Welcome | Friday 13 June 2025
Free live events from EYFS to KS4
A Day of Welcome is an annual day of solidarity and learning in schools that aims to build a culture of welcome and understanding for people seeking sanctuary. Celebrated by more than 550 schools in 2024, it supports teachers to develop refugee education and to kickstart Refugee Week (16-22 June 2025) by providing FREE live events, resources and activities for pupils of all ages.
Why get involved?
Registered schools will get access to:
Founded by teachers in Norfolk and developed in partnership with Schools of Sanctuary and Anglia Ruskin University, A Day of Welcome is open to any school, from nursery to Sixth Form, across the UK.
Participating schools will be granted access to a bank of carefully curated activities, teaching resources, training opportunities and exclusive live events that they can pick and choose from.
Our free online live events this year, include talks by authors and artists with lived experience of forced displacement. Sessions for primary pupils with Gulwali Passarlay, Hossam Fazulla (8bitfaz) and Dina Nayeri, will focus on refugee experience and building welcoming communities. For pupil voice groups at secondary schools, Jaz and Giel from Asylum Speakers will share ways to foster solidarity and a culture of welcome in our schools. We also have a new event for families which will include a Moomins storytime and art workshop with Hossam Fazulla (8bitfaz).
For schools with refugee pupils we create and curate a range of resources and training events to help them better support these families. Our refugee education partners include UNHCR, Refugee Education UK, Amnesty International, International Rescue Committee and the Bell Foundation.
Our aspiration is to help every school to be a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for everyone, including those seeking sanctuary. Will you join us?
Book live events for your classroom now:
Asylum Speakers – Jaz O’Hara and Giel
Tuesday 6 May 2025 @ 2:00pm - 3:00pm
A Day of Welcome – The Waiting Place
Friday 13 June 2025 @ 10:30am - 11:15am
Thanks to our partners in this event:
Schools of Sanctuary and Anglia Ruskin University have worked closely in the last 5 years to develop A Day of Welcome – an annual day of learning and solidarity inspired by stories of refugee migration that raises awareness of refugee history and heritage, past and present, local and global. Schools of Sanctuary is a national network of schools committed to building a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers.
Asylum Speakers is a media platform amplifying voices on those impacted by displacement. Asylum Speakers was born in early 2015 and the team are dedicated to challenging the fear-based narrative of today’s media and society and do so through film, talks and an extremely popular podcast. Asylum Speakers has a clear goal for every school-aged child in the UK to have heard a story of displacement firsthand in order to encourage empathy, understanding compassion and love for the most vulnerable members of our society.
Norwich 2040 Local Cultural Education Partnership is a network of Norwich’s creative and cultural organisations, educators, schools and young people. Our mission is to make sure that all of the children and young people in the city and surrounding areas have access to our rich creative sector and its opportunities.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights.
