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<p>Schools are responsible for ensuring that all of their pupils, irrespective of
their ethnicity and background, are engaged, challenged and have opportunity to achieve
their full academic potential. Such children and young people may be diverse in terms
of their country of origin, how long they have been in England and their previous
experiences of formal education – so individual schools will be best placed to determine
how to integrate pupils with refugee status most effectively into the life of the
school.</p><p>Head teachers have flexibility in how they use the funding allocated
to their schools in order to support and address the specific needs of their pupils
– including those who are refugees (or seeking asylum). Refugee children may have
English language development needs. Through the new national funding formula (NFF)
for schools, which was introduced in April 2018, schools are allocated funding for
pupils with English as an additional language (EAL) who have been in the school system
in England for up to three years. The funding equates to an additional £515 per primary
school pupil and an additional £1,385 per secondary school pupil by the time the formula
is fully implemented. The mobility factor in the NFF also directs funding to schools
in which more than 10% of pupils joined the school mid-way through the academic year.</p><p>Where
appropriate, schools can also use their pupil premium funding to support refugee pupils
who are classed as disadvantaged, or who are currently or have previously been in
local authority care.</p><p>Unaccompanied asylum seeking children who arrive in the
UK become looked-after children and therefore will be safeguarded and have their welfare
promoted in the same way as any other looked-after child. Such children will have
a Personal Education Plan, and social workers, Virtual School Heads (VSH) and Independent
Reviewing Officers, school admission officers and special educational needs departments
will work together to ensure that appropriate education provision for the child is
arranged.</p><p> </p><p>The department has contributed £1.3 million through the Controlling
Migration Fund over two years to fund eight diverse local authorities in providing
better access to initial assessment and education for unaccompanied asylum seeking
children. The local authorities will also use their delivery models to develop resources
for this vulnerable cohort of looked-after children that can be easily shared with
and used by other local authorities facing similar challenges. We are working with
the VSH Network to support the development of the tools and resources as well as good
practice examples and case studies of effective support, which are being cascaded
through the VSH Network to all other local authorities looking after unaccompanied
and refugee children.</p>
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