Refugee Week 2026
Preparations for Refugee Week 2026 are underway in Coventry schools!
Inspired by the lives and experiences of people seeking sanctuary, Refugee Week 2026 invites us to explore the theme of Courage.
The word courage comes from the Latin cor, meaning “heart.”
For refugees around the world, courage is often a daily necessity. It is the courage to face unknown journeys, learn new languages, navigate unfamiliar systems, or simply to wake up each morning and step into an uncertain world.
At a time when some seek to divide and blame, Refugee Week 2026 calls us to come together and share the courage to welcome, to stand for what we believe in, and to celebrate culture and community – to be joyful, imagine new possibilities, dream, heal, and connect.
For more information about the celebrations carried out in Coventry in 2026 or to gain inspiration for 2027, please visit our Coventry Refugee Week padlet [https://padlet.com/adminemas/coventry-emas-refugee-week-padlet-o4arr0duc0ep6gdb]. We'd love to see what your school has been doing. If you have any photos, pupils' work, or other examples you would like to share with other schools, please feel free to upload them to the Padlet.
Refugee Week 2025
Community is the incredible everyday. Ordinary and extraordinary. Simple acts of shared generosity. Kindness multiplied to become an unstoppable force!
“We can begin the process of making a community wherever we are. We can begin by sharing a smile, a warm greeting, a bit of conversation; by doing a kind deed or by acknowledging kindness offered to us.”- bell hooks
Communities can bring people together. Bridging divides and offering support. Spaces of resilience and places for healing.
This Refugee Week, everyone is invited to spend time with friends and build new connections in and beyond our neighbourhoods. From communal meals and open-air film screenings, to football matches and music making, let’s share the feelings of welcome and belonging. Listening, learning, laughing together.
It’s amazing what we can do when we move together towards a shared goal. So let’s redefine and rediscover our collective power to shape hopeful futures and begin by practising, celebrating and rehearsing it every day.
Join us for Refugee Week [https://refugeeweek.org.uk/theme-of-refugee-week-2025-community-as-a-superpower/], 16–22 June 2025, and together let’s unleash the superpower of community.
Superhero Cape project
It was lovely to see so many Coventry school pupils contribute to the Superhero Cape project organised jointly by EMAS and the Coventry Migration Team. Pupils from four schools participated: Coundon Court School, Sidney Stringer Academy, Little Heath Primary School and St Elizabeth's Catholic Primary School by sending in individually decorated fabric squares which were then sewn together by the Carriers of Hope Sewing Group into a superhero cape that was exhibited during Refugee Week at Friargate, The Central Library, The Council House and The Herbert.
Refugee Week school event at Warwick Arts Centre
For the third year running, schools came together at Warwick Arts Centre to celebrate Refugee Week by taking part in a variety of workshops. Pupils from Charter Primary School, Little Heath Primary School, St Anne's Catholic Primary School, John Gulson Primary School and Westwood Academy spent the day learning about Refugee Crisis from the University of Warwick Unicef Society, taking part in a movement workshop with Sam Strachan and working together to create a collaborative bread sculpture with Tereza Buskova. Staff and pupils commented on the day:
"We all loved it so much - so valuable for the children and such a great range of activities - with the thread of empathy and community woven through all."