June 25, 2026
Thisyear, Trinity Centre’s Refugee Week celebrations centred around engaging with local schools in creative and fun ways around this year’s theme of Courage.
Refugee Week is a UK wide festival of arts, culture, and ideas. It takes place every year across one week in June. It celebrates the contributions of refugees and people seeking asylum, and aims to build understanding between communities.
Firstly on Wednesday 17th June, we welcomed Year 5 and 6 pupils from Stacey and Albany Road Primary Schools to visit the centre to celebrate Refugee Week. It was a rainy Wednesday but inside the Trinity Centre the atmosphere was much brighter. Pupils took part in a workshop led by members of Aurora Trinity Collective, a women's artist led group who meet at the centre once a week. The group led pupils in three creative activities.
Courage Hearts
Pupils made their own Courage Hearts. These were lavender bags in the shape of hearts. Pupils sewed the felt hearts together and added their lavender in the middle. Lavender bags were one of the first things made by people at Trinity years ago, to help people seeking sanctuary to sleep.
‘It smells so good, I’m going to give it as a present to my mum’ - year 5 pupil.
Bunting
Pupils learnt how to tie dye, taking fabric squares and knotting them. The plain pieces were transformed with colourful dyes and once dried, will be combined into bunting. The bunting will be used in school and also at Trinity. We want Trinity to be a welcoming place for all people and bright bunting will help make a cheery first impression at our community events.
Collaborative Banner
Everyone contributed to a collaborative woven art piece. The weaving took place on a giant loom. Each pupil chose their fabric lengths and wove them together. This art piece needed everyone to make it work - bringing different strands and colours together into one big piece. The banners will go to each school for them to display.
Thanks to all the wonderful pupils who joined us, we loved celebrating refugee week with you all. And big thanks to Aurora Trinity Collective for your creative energy and skills.
Secondly, on Thursday 18th June Trinity was delighted to host children from StJoseph’s School in Penarth. The children that attended belong to the school’s Diversity Group and are hoping to contribute to them becoming a School of Sanctuary.
After a tour of the building and a presentation about its history; the children found out about seeking sanctuary by hunting hearts with questions and facts on them around the building.
We had lots of interesting discussions about truths and myths surrounding seeking asylum in the UK and the importance of feeling welcome and safe. Thank you to the staff from St Joseph’s for enabling the children to visit. Good luck with the School of Sanctuary award. We hope to see you for next year’s Refugee Week!
With thanks to all the schools that took part in this year’s Refugee Week activities. If you’d like to take part in next year’s Refugee Week celebrations, get in touch with us on enquiries@trinitycentre.wales
