Teachers need more help to support refugee children

“War is bad. It’s when they throw bombs out of planes. Sometimes I heard bombs. But I don’t remember. I only think of good things. I have a box in my head and put all the bad things in there and keep it locked. At the start in the UK, it was hard because we knew no one. I was shy at first, but I have many best friends here now. I like school…I like art best, with felt tip pens. I want to be a teacher. I want to be a teacher of everything!”These words, spoken by Ahmed, age 9 – who comes from Syria but now lives in the UK (and who shared his experience with the charity Refugee Action) – are a powerful reminder of the people behind the headlines about child refugees. They also serve to reinforce the importance of education in turning around the lives of children who have seen and heard horrors that we can only imagine.The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) is delighted, therefore, that a new campaign centred on welcoming child refugees has been launched in Scotland. The launch of Our Turn, the campaign from Safe Passage – which helps unaccompanied child refugees in Europe find safe and legal routes to sanctuary across Europe – is timely, coinciding as it does with the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport, which enabled Jewish refugees to escape Nazi persecution and find sanctuary in the UK.