Trauma-informed teaching for refugee students: a guide for educators

Trauma-informed teaching for refugee and asylum-seeking students means building a classroom or mentoring relationship that feels safe, predictable and fair, that gives young people real choices, and that never asks them to relive what happened to them. It does not mean becoming a therapist. It means noticing, adapting, and knowing exactly where to refer when a young person needs more than you can give.

The evidence for taking this seriously is strong. Systematic reviews find substantial rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety among refugee children and adolescents, and the stresses do not stop at the border: asylum decisions, housing moves and separation from family carry on while a young person is trying to learn fractions, photosynthesis or the passive voice.

This guide is written for teachers, tutors, college staff and volunteer mentors. It sets out what the research says about prevalence, how trauma and ongoing stress affect attention and memory, what trauma-informed practice actually is, practical strategies for the classroom and the mentoring session, which school-based interventions have evidence behind them, what NICE guidance means for schools, when and where to refer, and how to look after yourself while doing this work.

How common are PTSD, depression and anxiety among refugee children?

The honest answer is: common, but with a lot of uncertainty about exactly how common.

The most frequently cited pooled estimate comes from a 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis by Blackmore and colleagues in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. It applied strict criteria — only studies that diagnosed mental illness properly, rather than screening questionnaires — and found eight eligible studies involving 779 refugee and asylum-seeking children and adolescents in five countries. The pooled prevalence was 22.71% for PTSD (95% confidence interval 12.79–32.64), 13.81% for depression (5.96–21.67) and 15.77% for anxiety disorders (8.04–23.50).

A broader 2019 systematic review by Kien and colleagues in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry took a different approach. It gathered 47 studies covering 24,786 young refugees and asylum seekers across 14 European countries, including studies that used screening tools. Because the studies were too different to pool, it reported the spread instead. The median study found PTSD in 35.3% of participants, with the middle half of studies ranging from 19.0% to 52.7%. For depression the median was 20.7% (range 10.3–32.8%), and for anxiety disorders 15.0% (8.7–31.6%).

Estimated prevalence of mental health conditions in refugee children and adolescents

Pooled estimate from Blackmore et al. (2020) alongside the median study in Kien et al. (2019)

• Blackmore et al. 2020 (pooled, 8 studies)
• Kien et al. 2019 (median of European studies)

• PTSD22.7%vs 35.3%

  Blackmore 95% CI 12.8–32.6; Kien middle half of studies 19.0–52.7

• Depression13.8%vs 20.7%

  Blackmore 95% CI 6.0–21.7; Kien middle half of studies 10.3–32.8

• Anxiety disorders15.8%vs 15%

  Blackmore 95% CI 8.0–23.5; Kien middle half of studies 8.7–31.6

Show the data as a table

Estimated prevalence of mental health conditions in refugee children and adolescents

Category	Blackmore et al. 2020 (pooled, 8 studies)	Kien et al. 2019 (median of European studies)
PTSD	22.7%	35.3%
Depression	13.8%	20.7%
Anxiety disorders	15.8%	15%

How to read these numbers

Three cautions matter before you use any of these figures.

First, the ranges are wide because the studies are genuinely different: different countries, ages, assessment tools and stages of the asylum process. Kien and colleagues rated the overall certainty of their evidence as low or very low, and only two of their 47 studies were judged at low risk of bias.

Second, some groups carry much more risk than others. In the Kien review, three studies that compared the two groups directly found higher rates of positive PTSD screening among unaccompanied children than among those who arrived with family. If you teach or mentor a young person who is in the UK without their parents, our guide to the education rights of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children sets out the wider picture.

Third, and most important for day-to-day practice: most refugee children do not have PTSD. Many are coping well, and many are remarkably resilient. The World Health Organization notes that almost everyone affected by an emergency experiences psychological distress, which typically improves over time. A trauma-informed approach does not assume damage. It assumes that some students in the room may be struggling, and designs for that without singling anyone out.

How trauma and ongoing stress affect attention, memory and learning

A young person can be bright, motivated and doing everything asked of them, and still find it hard to retain a lesson. That is not a character flaw, and it is often not a learning disability either.

What the research shows

The NICE guideline on PTSD lists the kinds of difficulties that parents and carers should know about after a child has been through a traumatic event, including nightmares, intrusive thoughts, avoiding reminders, increased behavioural difficulties, problems concentrating, hypervigilance and difficulties sleeping. Every one of those has an obvious consequence in a classroom.

A 2017 meta-analysis by Malarbi and colleagues in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews pooled 27 studies of trauma-exposed children. Children with PTSD performed less well than children who had not experienced trauma across several areas, including language and verbal skills, information processing, learning and memory, and executive skills. Most of the studies involved maltreatment within families rather than war or displacement, so the findings do not transfer neatly — but the direction is clear. Trauma and its after-effects take up cognitive capacity that would otherwise go to learning.

A 2016 review by Kaplan and colleagues in Transcultural Psychiatry, focused specifically on refugee children, adds an important warning. Pre-arrival trauma, its psychological after-effects and family functioning all influence learning and academic performance — but so does language. A refugee child may be partly proficient in several languages but fully proficient in none, while also learning English. The authors caution that both factors need to be taken into account to avoid overdiagnosing learning disorders and placing children in the wrong educational setting.

Stress that has not ended

For many young people, the most disruptive stress is not in the past. The UK Trauma Council’s resource on refugee and asylum-seeking children describes ongoing stressors after arrival, including social isolation, loss of family, community and culture, housing instability and worry about the asylum process, and notes that these can distract young people and reduce motivation in education.

A 2012 review in The Lancet by Fazel and colleagues of children displaced to high-income countries found that exposure to violence was a key risk factor for poor mental health, while stable settlement and social support in the host country had a positive effect on children’s psychological functioning. The authors called for rapid resolution of asylum claims and effective integration.

That finding matters for educators, because a school, a college or a mentoring relationship can be one of the most stable things in a young person’s week. You cannot speed up a Home Office decision. You can make Tuesday’s lesson reliably the same shape as last Tuesday’s.

None of the middle column is a diagnosis, and none of it should be written down as one. It is a list of possibilities to keep you curious rather than judgemental. For students with gaps in digital access — which can look like disengagement from homework — our piece on digital exclusion and asylum support explains the practical barriers.

What is trauma-informed practice?

In England, the clearest official reference point is the working definition of trauma-informed practice published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on 2 November 2022. It was written for health and care, but it translates well to education, and it reflects the original definition developed by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The definition describes an approach grounded in the understanding that trauma exposure can affect a person’s neurological, biological, psychological and social development. It asks practitioners to realise that trauma can affect individuals, groups and communities; to recognise its signs, symptoms and wider impact; and to prevent re-traumatisation — the re-experiencing of thoughts, feelings or sensations from a traumatic event, usually triggered by reminders.

It also makes one line very plain: the purpose of trauma-informed practice is not to treat trauma-related difficulties, which is the role of specialist services. Instead, it seeks to address the barriers that people affected by trauma face. The definition puts it as a shift from asking what is wrong with a person to asking what that person needs.

The six principles, translated

The working definition sets out six principles. Here is what each can look like in practice.

Practical strategies for teachers, tutors and mentors

The good news is that most trauma-informed strategies are simply good teaching, done deliberately. They benefit every student in the room, which also means nobody has to be singled out to receive them.

In the classroom

Make the lesson predictable. A visible plan on the board, a consistent opening activity and a clear signal that the lesson is ending all reduce the background uncertainty a young person is carrying. Predictability is not rigidity; it is a frame that makes surprises manageable.

Give real choice, in small doses. Choice restores a sense of control, which trauma and the asylum process both take away. Choice of seat, choice of which question to start with, choice of whether to present to the whole class or to a small group — each costs almost nothing.

Teach the language alongside the content. A student who is still learning English carries a double load in every lesson. Pre-teaching key vocabulary, using diagrams and allowing a first draft in a home language all lower that load. Our guide to ESOL for 16–19 year olds covers the language side in more depth.

Start from strengths. Many refugee students arrive with substantial prior education, several languages and a great deal of practical competence. Asking what they studied before, and building on it, communicates respect and gives you a far more accurate starting point than a blank-slate assessment.

Separate behaviour from the person. When a response looks out of proportion, respond to the need underneath it first and the rule second. Offer a quiet way out, follow up privately, and keep your school’s behaviour policy consistent — fairness is part of safety.

Protect belonging. Pair a new arrival with a well-chosen buddy, use names correctly, and look for low-pressure ways to take part, such as practical group work, before high-exposure ones like speaking in front of the class.

In a mentoring session

Online mentoring has its own shape. Sessions are shorter, the relationship is more personal, and there is no staffroom next door. That makes structure and boundaries even more important. Our article on what STEM mentoring actually involves describes the day-to-day; the trauma-informed layer sits on top of it.

Keep the frame steady. A consistent time, a consistent platform and a familiar pattern — a short check-in, the work, a quick summary, and when you will next meet — give the session a predictable rhythm.

Let the subject be the point. For most young people, a mentor is valuable precisely because the session is about quadratic equations, a personal statement or a mock interview, not about their past. Being treated as a capable learner is itself protective.

Be clear about what you are, and are not. You are a volunteer helping with learning and next steps. You are not a caseworker, an immigration adviser or a counsellor. Saying this kindly and early prevents confusion later.

Plan endings. Mentoring relationships end — ours run from October to March. Name the end date at the start, remind the student as it approaches, and close well. For young people who have experienced sudden losses, a planned ending is very different from a relationship that simply fades.

Why you should never ask about the journey

It can feel like interest or kindness to ask a young person where they came from, how they got here, or what happened to their family. Please do not.

Questions about the journey can act as exactly the kind of reminder that the government’s working definition warns may trigger re-traumatisation. Many young people seeking asylum may already have been asked to describe their experiences in formal settings, and they did not choose to share them with their maths tutor. There is also a boundary issue: a mentor who hears a detailed account has taken on something they are not trained or supported to hold.

If a young person chooses to tell you something, that is different. Listen calmly. Do not ask for more detail than they offer. Thank them for trusting you. Do not promise to keep it secret, and pass on anything that raises a safeguarding concern — more on that below.

An illustrative example

The following is a composite scenario, built to show the principles in action. It does not describe any real person.

A seventeen-year-old in a college chemistry class has been doing well for a term, then starts arriving late and missing homework. In one lesson a fire alarm test goes off without warning; he leaves the room and does not come back.

A reactive response would be a sanction for leaving class. A trauma-informed response starts with a quiet conversation the next day: I noticed yesterday was hard. Is there anything that would help? He says he has been moved to new accommodation across the city and is sleeping badly. His teacher does not ask why he was upset by the alarm. She agrees a later deadline, asks the college to warn him before future alarm tests, records the conversation, and passes the housing move and the sleep problem to the college’s safeguarding lead, who contacts his support worker. The lesson stays the same shape. So does her expectation that he can do the work.

Which school-based interventions have evidence?

Trauma-informed practice is a whole-setting approach. Some schools and services also offer structured programmes for young people with trauma symptoms. One that has been studied specifically with refugee children is Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT).

TRT was developed by the Children and War Foundation, based in the UK and Norway. It is a brief, manualised group programme that draws on trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy techniques, designed for children aged 8 and above who have experienced war or disaster. According to a 2022 pilot trial paper, its original format includes five youth sessions — covering psychoeducation, managing strong feelings, coping with and processing difficult thoughts and memories, overcoming trauma reminders and looking to the future — plus two sessions for caregivers.

What the evidence says

• Community settings. A 2018 evaluation in Sweden by Sarkadi and colleagues delivered TRT to unaccompanied refugee minors in ten groups. Among the 46 young people with before-and-after measures, both PTSD and depression symptoms fell significantly, even though more than half experienced negative life events during the programme. The study had no control group, and the authors called for a controlled trial.
• Schools. A 2024 cluster trial in Swedish secondary schools, published in BMC Public Health, set out to test TRT with newcomer students. Of 531 students approached, only 61 consented and were eligible, and so few ended up in the control group that the trial became a feasibility study. Among students who received TRT, PTSD symptoms and general mental health problems had reduced significantly three months later. The authors concluded that TRT is promising in schools, but that schools need to be engaged and a local coordinator should manage implementation.
• Systematic review. A 2026 systematic review by Wild and colleagues in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma found 11 studies — seven randomised controlled trials and four before-and-after studies — with 3,149 participants. TRT consistently reduced PTSD symptoms; evidence for reductions in depression and general distress was less consistent. The authors described it as effective, scalable and low-cost, while calling for longer-term follow-up.
• Wider treatment evidence. A 2025 meta-analysis by Velu and colleagues in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology looked at trauma-focused treatments for refugee children generally, and found promising results for CBT-based approaches, EMDR therapy and narrative exposure therapy for children (KIDNET). It stressed that the included studies were generally of low quality and that more high-quality research is urgently needed.

What NICE guideline NG116 means for schools

NICE’s guideline on post-traumatic stress disorder (NG116), published in December 2018, is written for health and care professionals. Schools do not deliver it. But knowing what it recommends helps you make better referrals and set realistic expectations.

Symptoms that last beyond a month deserve attention. NICE advises that when a child involved in a traumatic event is seen in an emergency department, staff should explain normal responses to trauma to their parents or carers, and suggest they contact their GP if symptoms persist beyond one month.

Refugees and asylum seekers are named. For refugees and asylum seekers at high risk of PTSD, NICE says health services should think about routinely using a validated, brief screening tool as part of any comprehensive health check. It also asks services to make access work for migrants and asylum seekers, people not registered with a GP and looked-after children — and to offer flexible delivery, including in non-clinical settings such as schools.

Treatment is specialist, and it works. NICE recommends that young people aged 7 to 17 with PTSD or clinically important symptoms more than three months after a traumatic event should be offered individual trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy. EMDR can be considered if they do not respond to or engage with that. NICE also recommends against drug treatments for PTSD in under-18s.

Do not debrief. NICE says psychologically-focused debriefing should not be offered to prevent or treat PTSD. For schools, the practical translation is simple: do not sit a young person down and encourage them to go through what happened in detail. Offer calm, practical support and a route to proper help instead.

When and where to refer

Referral routes vary by area and by the young person’s age and immigration status. Services also change their capacity; check each organisation’s own page before referring.

A few notes on that table.

The Refugee Council’s My View service is clear that it cannot support young people who need urgent clinical intervention. For a young person in crisis, the NHS routes come first.

The Helen Bamber Foundation does not accept referrals for anyone under 18, prioritises people who do not currently have status in the UK, and cannot consider referrals for people who already have refugee or humanitarian status, indefinite leave to remain or British citizenship. It can be highly relevant for older students — programmes like ours work with young people up to the age of 22 — but it is not a children’s service.

Freedom from Torture works with men, women and children who have survived torture, and states that people who have not experienced torture should speak to their GP instead.

For a broader practical view of the services around a young refugee — education placement, social care, legal advice — see our guide to supporting a young refugee into education.

Safeguarding and boundaries for volunteers

Trauma-informed practice sits inside safeguarding, never alongside it or instead of it.

For schools and colleges in England, the statutory framework is Keeping children safe in education 2026, updated on 1 September 2026. It sets out the legal duties schools and colleges must follow to safeguard children and young people under 18, and says all staff must read part one in full and follow their setting’s safeguarding policies. Volunteers working in schools should be briefed on the same policies.

Charities and mentoring programmes will have their own safeguarding policy and lead. Whatever the setting, the same core rules apply.

Never promise confidentiality. You can promise to listen, and to tell only the people who need to know. You cannot promise to keep a worry secret.

Pass concerns on quickly, and do not investigate. Your job is to notice and report to the safeguarding lead, not to establish what happened.

Record accurately. Write down what you saw or heard, using the young person’s own words where possible, with the date and time. Avoid interpretation.

Keep contact inside the programme. Use the platforms, times and communication channels your organisation has approved. Do not swap personal numbers or follow students on social media.

Remember that some students are adults. Many young people on post-16 programmes are over 18. Adult safeguarding works differently, and consent matters more, but you should still raise concerns with your safeguarding lead rather than decide alone.

Stay in your lane on advice. Well-meant but wrong advice about asylum, housing or benefits can cause real harm. Signpost to qualified advisers instead.

Looking after yourself and your colleagues

Supporting young people who have lived through serious adversity is meaningful work. It can also be heavy.

Education staff are already under strain. In Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025, based on a survey of 3,082 UK education staff between June and July 2025, overall wellbeing was at its lowest since the index began in 2019. The report also highlights the emotional load that sits outside the job description: 87% of staff said they provided emotional support to pupils and students at least monthly.

Wellbeing of UK education staff, 2025

Share of staff reporting each experience in the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025

• Provide emotional support to pupils or students at least monthly87%
• Experience symptoms of poor mental health due to work77%
• Report feeling stressed76%
• At risk of probable clinical depression36%

Show the data as a table

Wellbeing of UK education staff, 2025

Category	Value
Provide emotional support to pupils or students at least monthly	87%
Experience symptoms of poor mental health due to work	77%
Report feeling stressed	76%
At risk of probable clinical depression	36%

Hearing about or sensing another person’s trauma can affect the listener too. The Anna Freud and UK Trauma Council toolkit includes supporting professional wellbeing as one of its core sections, alongside recognising and responding to trauma. A few habits help.

Use supervision and debrief with the right people. Talk through difficult sessions with your safeguarding lead, line manager or programme coordinator — not with friends in identifiable detail.

Hold realistic expectations. You cannot fix a young person’s asylum case, housing or grief. You can offer a reliable hour, a clear explanation and a route to help. That is enough, and it matters.

Notice changes in yourself. Trouble switching off, intrusive thoughts about a student’s situation, irritability or dread before sessions are signals to seek support, not signs of weakness.

Know where to call. The Education Support helpline — 08000 562 561 — is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day to anyone working, or who has worked, in education. Volunteers outside education can speak to their programme lead or their own GP.

What this adds up to

Trauma-informed teaching is not a special programme reserved for a few students, and it is not therapy by another name. It is a set of habits: routines that do not change without warning, choices offered as a matter of course, relationships that stay about learning, questions that are never asked, and referrals that are made promptly to people qualified to help.

The research shows that refugee and asylum-seeking young people carry a substantial burden of trauma-related difficulties, with wide variation between individuals. It also shows that stable settings and social support help, and that structured, evidence-based treatment exists for those who need it. Schools, colleges and mentoring programmes sit exactly where those two findings meet.

At Bridging the Future, we see the other side of that picture every year. In 2025 we received 315 applications for 30 places on our free STEM and English summer school at UCL, and our students have come from 23 countries. Since 2022, our volunteer mentors have supported 32 students through more than 250 hours of mentoring. The young people we meet are ambitious, capable and hard-working. A trauma-informed approach is how the adults around them make sure that ability has room to show.

If you work with young people from refugee, asylum-seeking or forced-migrant backgrounds aged 16 to 22, you can tell them about our programmes — details of Summer School 2027 will be announced on our application page. If you have questions, please get in touch.

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Figures compiled in September 2026 from the sources listed below. This article is general information and not clinical, medical or legal advice. Services, referral criteria and figures change — if you spot something out of date, please tell us.

Keep reading

• Supporting a young refugee into education — a practical guide for social workers, teachers and support workers.
• Education rights of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children — what separated young people are entitled to, and who is responsible.
• One hour a week — what volunteer STEM mentoring actually involves.
• The GCSE vacuum — why displaced 16-year-olds fall through UK education.