This post is written by members of the Portsmouth Youth Cabinet

On Thursday 16 February 2023, a vigil was held for Brianna Ghey. Portsmouth Cathedral was filled with hundreds of people from all walks of life, gathering to remember the 16-year-old girl who was murdered in a public park on Saturday afternoon.

People were invited to light candles and lay flowers. The vigil began with a prayer, and people were invited to speak.

“It’s wonderful we’ve been given this space for our voices to be heard,” said the first speaker. She talked about Brianna as an inspiration for trans youth, with her following on TikTok showing how far the impact of one’s life can extend, and how much she would have been an inspiration for many young people struggling for the right to live as who they are.

Several moving poems were recited, including ‘The life that I have’ by Leo Marks, ‘Stop the Clocks’ by W.H Auden and an original piece by someone who attended.

Many of those present didn’t know Brianna, but her death had an impact far beyond personal connection. “You might not have known her, but it’s personal, isn’t it?” said Councillor Chris Attwell, Cabinet Member for Communities and Central Services.

In reference to the teenagers charged with the crime, a speaker emphasised that “they were led there, and we need to find out how they got there.”

“People act on hate,” he continued, “but as a society, we are not responsible – we do not create the hate – but we are responsible for ensuring this doesn’t happen again.” He went on to say that politicians dehumanising trans people and using the trans “debate” as a divisive political tool has fuelled a rise of hatred and misunderstanding. This violent behaviour is an inevitable consequence. In the words of the next speaker, “This is not the first time someone has died because of their identity, but it has to be the last.”

He finished by saying, “I don’t want to light candles, and pray and wait for next time.”

By this point, the candelabra at the front of the cathedral had overflowed; the Canon laid out tinfoil to provide extra space and the light continued to grow as the night went on.

The final speaker concluded, “For all trans people in this city, you are not alone – we are a family.”

Young carers will become an identifiable group on the school census from spring 2023. Their inclusion will have potential benefits for young carers and schools, which could include:

• A greater understanding of the number of young carers in a school, in local areas and nationally.
• Opportunities to raise awareness and improve support for young carers in schools.
• Using data to consider whether attendance, exclusions etc. vary between young carers and their peers.
• Using data to help identify where support could be targeted and reviewing interventions to see if they have had the desired impact.
• Improved liaison and support for young carers at key transition points.
• The inclusion of young carers as a pupil premium group in the future.

What can schools do to prepare for this change?

• Ensure an inclusive, ‘whole-school approach’ that has ‘young carers’, ‘illness’ and ‘disability’ permanently in everyone’s thoughts and ‘agendas’.
• Provide a range of young carers awareness-raising activities and information, that it highlighted to all staff, pupils, and parents.
• Ensure that systems and processes are in place to identify young carers and to help ensure that their needs are being met sensitively and effectively.

The Children’s Commissioner for England in their ‘Voices of England’s Missing Children’ Attendance Audit publication (June 2020) recommends that all schools should have a Young Carers Policy, which includes the ‘voices’ of young carers and a named Young Carers Champion.

Our service offers a range of free ‘young carers’ support for all Portsmouth schools to help them prepare for this important change, through the following:

• Bespoke young carers awareness raising training. We recommend that this is offered to all staff and governors, irrespective of their roles and responsibilities. Sessions can be tailored to meet the different needs of teams within a school.
• Assemblies to raise awareness of young carers, the amazing and sometimes challenging responsibilities they may have, and the impact these could have. The assemblies also signpost young carers to support in school and from our service.
• Providing a ‘School Census’ focus at this terms young carers school and college network meeting. Two (repeated) sessions are being held on:
  • Tuesday 18 October 2022 from 2pm – 3pm on MS Teams
  • Wednesday 19 October 2022 from 3.45pm – 4.45pm on MS Teams
• Emailing key young carers updates and information from our service and other organisations to our ‘young carer link’ in every Portsmouth school.

The Young Carers Alliance is also offering schools and other professionals the opportunity to attend a Young Carers and the School Census forum on Wednesday 11 November 2022. Book your place here.

If you or a colleague would like to book onto a young carers school/college network meeting, to find out more about our training and assembly offer, or ask us any other questions, please contact us using our shared email address: [email protected]

Resources

• The government has published advice and guidance on their Education Blog.
• Newsround has child-friendly advice for anyone feeling anxious about the news.
• British Red Cross resources are helpful for looking at the situation regarding refugees and asylum-seekers.
• Schools of Sanctuary have provided helpful guidance and resources for parents, carers and teachers on speaking with children about the war in Ukraine.
• First News and the Association of Citizenship Teaching (ACT) have provided fact sheets relating to this conflict.
• Early years education expert, Tamsin Grimmer, has created a leaflet to help us understand and have the confidence to deal with the subject of war with young children.
• YoungMinds have a guide for parents and carers on trauma and mental health. There are also top tips for talking to your young person about the events in Ukraine.
• Kent County Council have collated resources for teachers and parents to support them to teach and talk with children about Ukraine.
• The Phoenix Group have produced a welcome booklet in Ukrainian plus general advice for talking to children about war.
• Oxfordshire EP Service have shared information about welcoming refugee children into your school.
• Joanna Ceremuga has collated a list of Ukrainian educational and language resources, books and audiobooks, based on information shared on social media.
• English With Ukrainians is a YouTube channel featuring translated lessons discussing linguistic/cultural differences. There are also activities that are suitable for host families to do with Ukrainian guests.
• My Languages has a range of free lessons on Ukrainian grammar and vocabulary.
• Twinkl have published free Ukrainian dual language resources to support new arrivals from Ukraine. There is a variety of handy worksheets, activities and more, which you can use to support your children’s transition to learning in a different language to Ukrainian.
• Mama Lisa’s World has a range of Ukrainian children’s songs and rhymes.
• Carel have produced a set of 25 free posters with the Ukrainian words for different library departments.

Update from the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service, April 2022

As you probably know, there are no new arrivals in the city from Ukraine at the moment. There were only a handful of families here before the Russian invasion, so it is unlikely that we’ll see many people arrive in the first ‘wave’.

However, as the government’s scheme to sponsor a Ukrainian family fleeing the war progresses, we will start to see more new arrivals. Portsmouth City Council as a whole is working hard to get preparations in place and there is funding from central government for councils for this plus an additional amount for schools (similar to that available for pupils arriving from Afghanistan in ‘Operation Warm Welcome’); the amount is still currently unspecified, I believe.

However, guidance was recently released to local authorities around the expectation of their role. This information has been reviewed and impacts upon different areas of the council identified. Currently the volume and rate of arrivals is still unclear although PCC hope to have more information about that in due course. The support needed for each sponsor/guest pairing is expected to be significant and wide ranging. The challenge is the pace of delivery. Once more information becomes available, and we get a picture of the scale and complexity of the work, more details can be provided.

We at EMAS are monitoring the situation carefully and are about to start the process of employing a Ukrainian BLA. There will necessarily be a delay for recruitment processes but, by waiting a little, there will be a larger pool of applicants from which to choose and we will also know the scale of the need. In the meantime, we have our existing Russian BLA, Olga Barker, who can support any Russian-speaking pupils and parents – although we will obviously be sensitive in her deployment. She is already doing important work with children across the city, several of whom have parents from both Ukraine and Russia and who are obviously finding the current situation especially challenging. There are over 100 Russian-speaking pupils in our schools but there are reports from neighbouring authorities that the numbers are rising, with families wanting to leave Russia.

In the city, there are also children whose families come from countries bordering either Ukraine or Russia itself and who may also be feeling particularly vulnerable, picking up on any stress that adults in their families might well be experiencing at the moment. We have almost 700 Polish-speaking pupils in Portsmouth, more than 400 Romanians, 100 Hungarian-speakers and over 150 other pupils from other neighbouring countries such as Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The ongoing conflict will be especially ‘close’ for them.

EMAS are able to provide support and advice to subscribing schools. If you do not currently subscribe and would like to do so please visit the traded services website.