’Teaching and Learning in Difficult Times’

Teachers will take a lead role in providing emotional support to Ukrainian students who have fled the war in their homeland, thanks to a course run by the British Council, with the support of UNICEF in Romania and International Organization for Migration Romania.

35 Ukrainian teachers and 12 Romanian and Bulgarian teachers will learn strategies to create physical and emotional safety for Ukrainian students who have experienced trauma, making the classroom more welcoming for refugee students.

HMA Andrew Noble (British Ambassador to Romania), Mr. Ionel Florian Lixandru (State Secretary, Ministry of Education), Jean-Benoit Manhes (Senior Emergency Coordinator – UNICEF Romania), Mircea Mocanu ( Head of Office, International Organization for Migration) and Andrew Glass (Director, British Council Romania) will deliver the opening speeches in the first day of the course on 27 October, from 9 – 9:30 a.m. at British Council, Calea Dorobantilor 14, Bucharest. Members of the press are invited at the opening session of the event ( 27 October, from 9-9:30) at British Council, Calea Dorobantilor no.14 Bucharest. The course itself is only for the teachers.

The course responds to the needs of teachers and students, who currently find themselves in Romania in various situations related to the engagement in the educational process.

Ukrainian students who have arrived in Romania are learning in a number of ways, with most of them following their Ukrainian school course online and others enrolled in public and private schools in Romania. Many Ukrainian teachers have organised their own educational hubs, hosted by Romanian public schools, to which mothers bring their children in the morning and leave them in the care of Ukrainian teachers. Public institutions and NGOs have also created educational centres for Ukrainian children to study and take part in extra-curricular activities.

Since these children spend a large part of their day at school, the people most suited to provide them with emotional support are their teachers. Ukrainian teachers have themselves been through the trauma of war and resettlement, while many Romanian teachers now find themselves faced with the reality of teaching foreign, traumatised children without ever having been trained to do that.

‘Teaching and Learning in Difficult Times’ is a course that has been organized by the British Council in various conflict-affected areas of the world or countries that are hosting refugees (most recently in Poland).

The 47 teachers who will attend this 30-hour intensive course will learn:

• how to create a trauma-sensitive learning environment
• how to manage challenging behaviours, that might appear in response to experiencing trauma
• how to make the lesson and classroom more welcoming for the refugee children

The course in Romania will run from 27-30 October 2022 in Bucharest. Out of the 47 teachers who will participate in the course, 26 currently live and teach in Bucharest, 17 are currently located in different parts of Romania and  4 are  from Bulgaria).