A whole-of-school approach to create better educational and wellbeing outcomes for students from refugee backgrounds.
The Refugee Education Support Program (RESP) is a program aimed at assisting schools to identify and implement strategies which have a positive impact on the achievement, engagement, and wellbeing outcomes of students from refugee backgrounds and their families.
RESP is provided to schools as a two-year program. The current round is underway and runs from 2024 to 2025. Additionally, in 2025, a pilot 1-year program called RESP Accelerate, will be offered to select schools. The next two-year program will commence in 2026.
What is the Refugee Education Support Program?
RESP works with participating primary, secondary and special development schools in the government and non-government sectors in defined geographic clusters across Victoria. The program creates a learning community across school clusters to share their practices and ideas to support each other.
RESP uses a Whole School Approach to explore five areas of action: teaching and learning, partnerships with families, partnerships with community agencies, transitions, and school climate (including empowering student voice).
RESP Accelerate focuses on three of these areas: partnerships with families, transitions, and school climate.
The Refugee Education Support Program has been designed to complement DET’s Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO 2.0) and Catholic Education Commission Victoria’s School Improvement Framework and supports the Refugee Accountability Statement requirements.
Why participate in RESP?
Children and young people from refugee backgrounds are often highly motivated, bringing with them a range of skills and strengths to succeed in their education, but can face significant challenges in accessing the support they need to remain engaged in and successfully navigate school.
These educational challenges are often compounded due to learning a new language, navigating a new culture and social system, building peer relationships, negotiating grief and loss associated with separation from significant others and an unfamiliar and different education environment.
During Covid-19 pandemic, many of these barriers became more pronounced, and more visible to schools, school staff, education stakeholders and the broader community. Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of targeted interventions and programs which promote equitable access to education and education outcomes.
In response, RESP provides schools with coordinated support to have a positive impact on the academic and wellbeing outcomes of children and young people from refugee backgrounds.
How has RESP helped other schools?
The Refugee Education Support Program has contributed to the following outcomes for past schools:
- Schools have improved their capacity to understand and respond to the needs of students and families from refugee backgrounds in relation to teaching and learning practices, school policies and processes.
- Teachers and school staff have increased their knowledge, skills and confidence in culturally responsive, trauma informed reflective practice.
- Families from refugee backgrounds are more confident and engaged with their school, their child’s learning, and community.
- Longer term improved school engagement, achievement and well-being outcomes for children and young people from refugee backgrounds.
How does RESP work?
An action team of staff from your school will be nominated to lead the school’s participation in RESP. They will receive expert support and mentoring from Foundation House and the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY).
Key elements of the program include:
- Regional cluster-based workshops for your RESP action team organised around the Whole School Approach.
- Completion of a school-wide staff survey and audit process to inform the ongoing work in RESP.
- Consultations with student groups to ensure that school actions are informed by student voice.Support to develop a school action plan and implement changes to school policies and practices.
- In-school professional learning to build whole staff capability to work with students and families of refugee backgrounds.
- Funding to launch a pilot project in your school to support students and families from refugee backgrounds.
- Assistance to build partnerships with families and local agencies.
- Advice on aligning initiatives that support students and families of refugee backgrounds.
- Periodic cluster-based Principal briefings.
- Regular opportunities to share practice with other schools in the cluster.
Schools who participate in RESP will:
- Nominate a school RESP action team of 4-7 staff members. Suggested roles include school leadership, wellbeing staff, EAL and/or leading teachers, MEAs/bicultural roles, staff with curriculum/learning diversity portfolios.
- Enable regular attendance of selected school staff at cluster-based professional learning workshops and Principal briefings.
- Participate in termly RESP action team meetings with both Foundation House and CMY support staff.
How much does RESP cost?
RESP is funded by the Department of Education and Training (DET) and is free of charge for all participating schools. RESP is implemented in partnership with Foundation House and the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) and delivered in collaboration with Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS), Catholic Education Commission Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria (ISV).
Past RESP Schools
The Refugee Education Support Program has contributed to the following outcomes for participating schools:
Kangaroo Flat Primary School
Bendigo Senior Secondary College
Cranbourne Primary School
Ruskin Park Primary School
Additional resources
- RESP Accelerate Brochure
- RESP 2024-2025 Brochure
- RESP Timeline 2024-2025
- Case Studies from RESP 2022-2023
How to get involved
Applications for RESP Accelerate 2025 are NOW OPEN!
In 2025, RESP Accelerate will be open to schools who are outside of the current 2024-25 regions participating in the extended program (Brimbank, Wyndham, Casey, Greater Dandenong, Greater Geelong, and Whittlesea).
Following an assessment of your school’s application, a RESP staff member from CMY or Foundation House will be in touch to arrange a phone, online or face to face conversation to discuss further details about your school’s application.
If you would like to learn more about the program before applying, please email resp@foundationhouse.org.au to request a consultation.
Before you begin your online application, it is helpful to have access to the following student numbers: whole school, EAL students, refugee background/refugee-like students.
Watch a pre-recorded RESP Information Session here.
To apply for RESP Accelerate 2025, please click on the application icon below.
Applications close Friday 25 October 2024.