We are extremely proud to announce that BBA has been re-accredited School of Sanctuary status for another three years.

This follows our initial award for recognition in October 2021, when the academy became the second secondary school in the city of Nottingham to be awarded this title. From that moment, we have worked relentlessly to honour this recognition and continue to offer a place of welcome and safety to all our students, with a special focus on refugees and asylum seekers.

Over these 3 years, BBA staff and students have engaged in a wide range of events and learning opportunities to maintain the commitment and enthusiasm that transpired from the very start. Among a long list of activities we have planned and worked for: changes to the curriculum to raise awareness on equality, diversity, justice and inclusion; strong connections with local charities such as Mesopotamia to offer informative talks and work experience to our students; stable staff and student committee groups for continued awareness and thinking on refugee themes as well as co-ordinated meetings across teams to enhance our model of welcome for each BBA child. These approaches have worked hand in hand with our strong academy ethos which firmly supports ‘The BBA Way’; in other words our four pillars of Kindness, Resilience, Curiosity and Kindness. These are qualities we constantly remind our students of and invite them to express in their daily activity.

Our City of Sanctuary assessors were ‘deeply impressed’ with our continued work, in particular: the expansion of training initiatives; continued awareness of sanctuary themes and their relation to world issues on refugees and asylum seekers and planned initiatives with the local charity Mesopotamia.

We aim to work with the same enthusiasm and commitment over the next three years and will continue to share our achievements!