Healing Classrooms

Crisis and conflict have direct and profound effects on children’s physical safety, well-being and ability to learn. Neuroscience has shown that children who experience the types of adversity common in crisis settings can have a physiological “toxic stress” response that inhibits their brain development, impacting their physical and mental health, cognition, behaviour and relationships. But this can be reversed. Children are remarkably resilient. When provided with the right support, such as safe, quality educational opportunities, the negative effects of hardship and stress are mitigated and children can heal, grow, learn and thrive.

The IRC’s Healing Classrooms approach—built on 40 years of education in emergencies experience and a decade of research and field testing—offers children a safe and predictable place to learn and cope with the consequences of conflict and displacement.  

All of our training series are based on the Healing Classrooms principles and provide practical guidance and resources on how to apply them to the everyday school context. 

The Healing Classrooms programme was launched in the UK in May 2022. 

Our educator training sessions focus on how to provide safe and supportive learning environments for refugees and asylum-seeking children alongside practical advice and resources on areas such as trauma-informed pedagogy, social-emotional learning (SEL), English as an Additional Language (EAL), and mindfulness.   

The IRC also provides access to an online resource bank for teaching and teacher development. In there, you can find comprehensive country briefings to assist schools to develop a greater understanding of the culture and the education system of students arriving from Ukraine and Afghanistan. 

Please contact [email protected]