immigration | Schools Week

Schools prepare for arrival of ‘hundreds’ of child refugees

Schools are being told to prepare for the arrival of hundreds of child refugees over the coming months following the closure of the Jungle camp in Calais. According to councils, more than 200 unaccompanied young refugees arrived last month after the camp’s closure in October. But local government leaders have called for better support and […]

Wilshaw: I would have refused pupil immigration checks as head

The collection of pupil nationality and country of birth data by schools is a “daft idea”, Sir Michael Wilshaw has said, indicating that he would have refused to carry out immigration checks on pupils when he was a headteacher. The outgoing chief inspector of Ofsted gave his view on recent disclosures that Theresa May wanted teachers to […]

Pupil nationality data is safe with us, says government

The government has reassured parents that pupil nationality data collected by schools will not be passed to immigration officials. The intervention follows a Schools Week investigation that exposed schools were misinterpreting new data collection rules – including asking pupils for passport copies and if they were asylum seekers. But human rights groups are still urging […]

School are not mini-immigration offices – and never should be

Schools should not make parents show their children’s passports. For anything. That’s a really simple rule. It’s also a rule the Department for Education won’t write that clearly. I don’t know why. But it should. So let us be clear. Schools have no right to make parents show a passport. Schools do not need to […]

Speed-read: What impact has EU immigration had on England’s schools?

As the EU referendum debate continues to rage on, a new report published today hopes to shed some light on the impact of immigration from European countries on England’s schools. Concerns over the impact on schools of a Brexit vote has taken a number of forms in the last few months – from loss of […]