I planned to highlight the needs of learners who have Refugee status and speak English as an Additional Language (EAL). I sought to exemplify what good practice for EAL learners looks like, I hope this with benefit both practitioners and pupils in mainstream primary classrooms. The issue of supporting refugees access Scottish education is pertinent now with the intake of Afghani and Ukrainian pupils across local authorities in Scotland.

Through reading, reflection, discussion and my daily practice I feel like we often highlight equality in education on paper but implementing policies and ensuring the diverse pupil demographic of the school has their needs met in the reality of a large school setting is particularly challenging. I knew focusing on EAL refugee pupils was an important focus of my enquiry firstly because it is directly relevant to my current remit as an EAL teacher funded for refugees and secondly because I face so many challenges in my role advocating for these pupils with bureaucratic red tape, a lack of specific funding for refugee pupils and a misunderstanding that these pupils are the “same as everyone else”.

The report Taking Stock: Race Equality in Scotland detailed significant existing inequalities in Scotland and argues that despite the race equality agendas of the last few decades, the is still a lot more work to be done. This connection between my classroom perspective and national statistics conveyed a picture of inequality for Black Minority Ethnic pupils, Second Language Learners and Refugees that spans beyond education, into later life experiences.