Opening Polish Schools to Ukrainian Refugee Children and Providing Them with Spiritual Support: Survey Results

Abstract

Following the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine, many women and children were forced to flee their homeland out of fear for lives. Poland, as a country bordering Ukraine, has accepted the most refugees, compared to other EU states. Soon after, Ukrainian school-age children began their education in Polish schools, but the process of their enrolment and adaptation to a new environment, as well as the provision of psychological assistance, became a significant challenge. The aim of the study was to inquire about the actions taken by principals of primary schools in Poland in connection with accepting refugee students from Ukraine to their institutions, as well as determining the possibilities of providing these students with spiritual support. The following survey research conducted in the four voivodeships that accepted the largest number of refugees, in urban and rural environments, allowed the identification of the practical solutions used by school principals in organising the assistance provided to refugee students from Ukraine in learning and integration with peers. As the research has indicated, the most important challenges in working with Ukrainian children affected by war are psycho-emotional experiences, depression and adaptation problems. Therefore, the priority in working with them was to use the strategy of spiritual support and solidarity, focusing on the prioritised human values—humanism, tolerance, faith, love, empathy, kindness, and mutual help. The conclusions drawn from the experience gained by Polish schools, in particular, in terms of the spiritual support for children of war, can be used by educational systems in other countries.

1. Introduction

1.1. The Phenomenon of War Refugee Children in the Modern World

The phenomenon of refugee flows has been known to humanity for thousands of years, and yet, it still arouses emotions, which may be due to the fact that the decision to follow a refugee path is usually forced by external factors involving suffering, persecution, war, and life threats. Accordingly, the term ‘refugee’ is often associated with a person who has gone through traumatic experiences. Poland has been providing refugees with protection, in line with international standards, only since the early 1990s. A breakthrough moment in the Polish refugee policy was the beginning of the 1990s, when on 27 September 1991, Poland became a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 New York Protocol, and therefore adopted international obligations to protect people seeking asylum (Convention, Journal of Laws of 1991, No. 119, items 515 and 517). The Geneva Convention specifies who can be considered a refugee, thanks to which all signatory countries have the same understanding of the concept. It defines a refugee as a person who has left their country owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a specific social group, or specific political beliefs. The Geneva Convention prohibits the expulsion of refugees or the return of refugees to countries where their life or freedom can be threatened (the so-called principle of non-refoulement).

Polish legislation provides refugees with the following forms of legal protection: granting refugee status, granting subsidiary protection (since 2008), permit for tolerated stay (since 2003), and asylum and temporary protection. In practice, the most often used provisions are subsidiary protection and refugee status. Refugee status is granted to persons who meet the criteria set out in the Convention, while subsidiary protection is granted to those who do not meet the requirements for being granted refugee status, but who, upon returning to their country of origin, would face a risk of suffering serious harm, e.g., death sentence, torture, inhumane treatment, or serious threat to health or life resulting from the widespread use of violence against civilians in situations of armed conflicts (Journal of Laws 2003, No. 128, item 1176, art. 3, art. 15).

The issues related to refugees are not new in the European experience (Paulgaard and Soleim 2023; Boe and Horsti 2019; Asfeldt et al. 2018; Naguib 2017). Poland, having been a transit country for refugees for years, does not have much experience with problems in this regard (Weinar 2003). The Polish scientific literature includes some publications on the integration of refugees (Grzymała-Kazłowska 2008; Deslandes et al. 2012; Gulińska 2021; Saturno 2023). However, only a few of them pertain to the situation in which the refugee is not an adult, but a child (Kopczak-Wirga and Kasperska-Kurzawa 2022; Popyk 2021, 2023; Slany and Strzemecka 2016; Zalewska 2017; Baranowska 2020). The war in Ukraine had a very strong impact on Ukrainian children and still affects them, as they were forced to flee and came to Poland as victims of war operations. They were deprived of a happy childhood and carefree fun with peers and family. The challenges these children face include problems with adaptation and education, but one’s attention is also drawn to loneliness, lack of close relationships and a reduced sense of security when staying in foreign environments (Pacek 2022). The plans of Ukrainian families became unreal and uncertain about the future.

As the data from the Polish Border Guard show, from the beginning of the war on 24 February 2022 to 2 July 2023, almost 12.5 million Ukrainian citizens crossed the Ukrainian–Polish border. It is estimated that currently there are over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland, mainly women and school-age children (Special Report 2022; Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk 2022; UNHCR 2023). So far, as of 1 September 2023, a total of over 1.5 million (1,507,461) PESEL numbers, i.e., numbers in The Polish Universal Electronic Population Registration System, have been assigned to Ukrainian citizens. The fact that, apart from Poland’s border with Ukraine, both nations are linked by spiritual, cultural and linguistic proximity, and that Ukrainian citizens, even before the outbreak of the war, would visit Polish cities in large numbers in search of work and a better life, were also important in the reception of the above-mentioned number of refugees. That is why Poland became the first, and often the final, stop for the Ukrainians fleeing the war.

Poland is often perceived as a country wishing to be a ‘solidarity power’ and in some scientific studies there have appeared analyses presenting the extent of the Polish facilitations (adjustments) addressed to Ukrainian war refugees. Furthermore, the Polish government framed its vision concerning migration and refugee accommodation as ‘flexible solidarity’. The initial findings confirm that Poland had gained a greater advantage as a regional player in Europe before the war (Bharti 2022; Shvangiradze 2022; Ptak 2023). The OECD research points to the contributions of Ukrainian refugees to the labour force in European host countries. Although the potential length of stay of Ukrainian refugees in host countries is uncertain, many working-age adults look for jobs during their stay. Compared to other refugees, Ukrainians share certain characteristics that facilitate their integration prospects (e.g., educational profile, existing social networks and direct access to employment). Still, other characteristics may make it more difficult for them to follow the pattern (being single mothers with children and other dependents). Although the forecasts are made in the context of a high level of uncertainty, it is assumed that the labour force grew by approximately 0.5% for all European countries by the end of 2022. On a country-by-country basis, the largest increases were recorded in three countries: the Czech Republic (2.2%), Poland (2.1%) and Estonia (1.9%). The overall estimated impact of Ukrainians on the labour force is approximately twice as large as the impacts of refugee flows into the European Union in the years 2014–2017. Most of this phenomenon has taken place in a few countries (Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia), and given the differences in migrant profiles between 2014–2017 and now, with more women and more well-educated persons, there will probably be fewer unskilled manual workers and more service professionals (Dumont and Lauren 2022).

Following the arrival of war refugees from Ukraine to Poland, the burden of caring for them was almost entirely taken over by local governments, which are responsible for housing policy or access to the most important services, i.e., education and health care. Local governments were faced with creating new social and institutional solutions, including preparing schools for the admission of Ukrainian children. According to the education law in force in Poland, children and young people aged 7 to 18 are subject to compulsory schooling; therefore, Ukrainian children can also study in Polish schools (Journal of Laws 1991, No. 95, item 425). Due to the ongoing war, they came to Poland during the school year, which caused their admission to the educational system to be an ongoing process, and therefore their enrolment to schools took place throughout the entire school year.

The data from the Polish electronic Educational Information System show that the number of Ukrainian students in Polish schools and kindergartens as of 14 February 2023, amounts to 187,900 children and youths; these are persons who fled from Ukraine to Poland after the Russian aggression against their country. At the end of April 2023, the Polish Ministry of Education and Science reported that there were over 193,000 Ukrainian students in the Polish education system. Approximately 43,800 children who arrived after 24 February 2022 receive pre-school education in Poland, and about 116,800 study in primary schools throughout Poland, while 27,200 are in secondary schools (https://www.prawo.pl/oswiata/ukrainskie-dzieci-w-polskich-szkolach,520015.html, accessed on 27 November 2023).

The crisis related to the war in Ukraine forced the educational systems of host countries to take action to prevent children’s social exclusion. The starting points for effective inclusion activities are legal and organizational changes that directly affect the principals’ work, as well as that of all the others employed in schools, i.e., teachers, educators, pedagogues, psychologists and specialists. They are the first to work with refugee students—persons of different cultures and religions, with diverse educational needs not only in terms of learning, but also in receiving psychological and pedagogical assistance. Some refugees had had traumatic and painful experiences after losing their closest family members, so it can be assumed that the process of establishing stable relationships with peers or involving them into positive interactions with the environment might have been significantly difficult. The school principals and teachers play a key role in meeting these needs. The course of the process depends directly on the teaching staff of a given institution, on their competences, pedagogical skills, attitudes and undertaken educational and care activities. As the outlined situation shows, the arrival of refugees from Ukraine to Poland resulted in the need to cater to sensibilities relative to education about peace and peaceful coexistence of various social groups. This has become timely in the face of the armed conflict, not only in Ukraine, but also in other parts of the world. The presented issues may encourage modern science to pay attention to new, previously unknown areas of exploration, including research that implicitly suggests practical activities in schools attended by refugees, as well as the spiritual support for children of war.

1.2. Spiritual Support for Children of War

As the research has shown, the most significant values for Ukrainian and Polish children are family, love, faith in God, health, friendship, respect, justice and goodness, as well as freedom and patriotism (Budnyk and Mazur 2017). Therefore, it is no coincidence that, since the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian war, the number of young people involved in the religious community has increased, with increased attendance at temples, churches, and other places for religious community gatherings. They have strengthened their faith in God and appreciated family warmth and comfort even more. According to a sociological study conducted in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, “26% of Ukrainians surveyed said that they had become more religious and believing people since the beginning of the great war” (Tatarenko et al. 2023). Thus, the spiritual (religious) factor has also played a crucial role in educational activities in particular, as well as in the development of the philosophy of peace, tolerance and multiculturalism in general.

The spiritual factor in educational activities has been called into focus by members of the leadership within Catholicism, and it has a direct relationship to the challenges being faced in Poland associated with efforts to meet the spiritual needs of school-age refugee children. The “Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the Launch of the Global Compact on Education” (Pope Francis 2019) calls for confronting the urgent challenges facing people to ensure a creation of a new universal solidarity and a more welcoming society. As His Holiness underlines, “in the context of the anthropological crisis of humanity, it is very important to renew” […] the passion for a more open and inclusive education, including serene listening, constructive dialogue and better mutual understanding, “by joining in a broad educational alliance” (Pope Francis 2019). Such cooperation between educational communities for peace and prosperity through education becomes a social challenge and necessity. However, it can only be realised through the partnership of students, teachers, parents and communities in various aspects of life, including education. Only then can a common home for all inhabitants of the Earth be created. This alliance should be based on the principles of responsibility, peace, justice and hospitality among all nations of the human family, created in an intercultural and interreligious dialogue (Pope Francis 2019).

The impact of religion on the spiritual well-being of Ukrainian children affected by Russian aggression can be quite significant. However, this impact must be considered on an individual basis, taking into account personal beliefs, community support, and the spirituality of children and their families. For example, religious communities have opportunities to engage in providing spiritual support to children with war trauma. They can become communities that help to interpret certain tragic events and reflect on values and the meaning of life after the experiencing of stressful situations or losses, as well as places of support, solidarity and understanding (Frankl 1959). In such circumstances, children can strengthen their faith and gain hope for a better future, even in times of instability. After all, it is impossible to lead a spiritual life in isolation, only for the improvement of one’s soul. The kindness shown to others in need in times of crisis, as well as the overwhelming love and deep care for the entire community (including the educational community), significantly influence the communication with God, and thus people’s spiritual lives. Moreover, in wartime, it is important to develop resistance to stress and spiritual values such as mercy, tolerance and compassion, which help overcome adaptation difficulties in the educational process.

Janusz Mariański defines a new direction in contemporary humanism, which he defines as ‘new spirituality’: “The new spirituality is primarily individualized, experiential and subjectivist, it is not defined by reference to institutionalized religiosity. Such a spirituality devoid of theological content tends to sacralise the profane” (Mariański 2021, p. 61). Therefore, as the scientist stresses, the new spirituality is not Christian or religious, it is pluralistic in nature. The boundaries between what is sacred and secular, or transcendent and immanent, are blurred. If a person who has experienced a trauma of war feels ‘inner emptiness’, disappointment, fear, etc., they seek support in a very difficult situation. They need to go ‘beyond the tedious and senseless everyday life’ to start a different life, and find its new meaning or new forms of spirituality, even non-religious ones. In fact, this phenomenon—new spirituality—manifests itself in the ability to find or give deeper meaning to one’s work on one’s consciousness (self-realization, raising one’s consciousness to a higher level). In new spirituality, a person develops individually with the help of spiritual masters (Pasek 2013), and by getting to know their inner world, they transform themselves. Such personal transformation may take place as “individualized spirituality understood as the search for meaning and one’s own happiness is characterized by high economic prosperity. It is slowly replacing, to some extent, individualized religiosity” (Mariański 2021, p. 58).

In the context of our study, it seems important to provide spiritual support to displaced children who have left their country due to war and who are temporarily living in different cultural and educational environments. Regardless of their religion, origin or attitude to faith, a ‘new spirituality’ in the context of ethics is desirable for spiritual enrichment and development, despite the trauma they have experienced. Children of war are very sensitive to the environments in which they live and need love, humanity, acceptance and understanding of the Other based on intercultural dialogue in education; therefore, it is necessary to focus on the “centrality of the human person, and of developing love—inscribed in its very nature—as the universal ethical basis, in the form of the Golden Rule” (Kozubek and Silva 2023, p. 10). Therefore, Polish educational institutions should not only serve the intellectual development of students, but also their psychological well-being, as well as become places of appropriate psychological, pedagogical, informational and spiritual support, which is in line with Laura Jones’ theory (Jones 2005) on spiritual development.

2. Material and Research Methods

The aim of the research was to find an answer to the main problem, namely, the types of actions taken by primary school principals in connection with the enrolment of refugee students from Ukraine in Polish schools and in providing them with spiritual support.

The quantitative survey research was conducted between September and December 2023, using an original survey questionnaire addressed to primary school principals. The development of the original tool was caused by the nature of the undertaken research, as currently there are no Polish standardized measurement tools concerning the issue. The survey questionnaire, consisting of 14 questions, including 7 closed, 4 semi-open and 3 open inquiries, was available online, which facilitated reaching the planned target groups from four voivodeships in Poland (

Table 1. Demographic data of the principals.

Variable		School Principals
		N = 118	%
School location	Countryside	38	32.0
	Small town	24	20.0
	Medium-sized city (20–100 thousand inhabitants)	25	21.0
	Large city (over 100 thousand inhabitants)	31	27.0
Voivodeship	Lublin Voivodeship	22	19.0
	Lower Silesia Voivodeship	33	28.0
	Lesser Poland Voivodeship	34	29.0
	Masovian Voivodeship	28	24.0
Seniority	1–5 years	44	38.0
	6–10 years	25	21.0
	11–15 years	18	15.0
	over 15 years	30	26.0
Sex	Woman	104	89.0
	Man	14	11.0

). The study used purposeful sampling, which allows for a critical look at the indicators occurring in the desired population, where the phenomena or processes are most likely to occur (Silverman 2008). This selection criterion was used because the voivodeships that were the bases of the study, i.e., Lubelskie, Lower Silesia, Lesser Poland, and Masovia, accepted the largest number of refugees from Ukraine and have the largest number of such people with active PESEL numbers (Wojdat and Cywiński 2022). Based on the results obtained from the conducted research, the phenomena were then characterized using numerical measures. Arithmetic means and percentages were calculated, and the interpretation of the obtained data was effected.

3. Results

Table 1 presents the basic data of the respondents—the primary schools’ principals in the previously indicated four voivodeships.

The data in Table 1 indicate that the majority of school principals are women. The largest number of them come from rural areas and large cities, and the largest group of principals involved in the study supervise schools in the Lower Silesian and Lesser Poland voivodeships. In terms of seniority, the principal’s position most often had been held for 1 to 5 years.

School Principals’ Actions Targeting Ukrainian Refugee Children

The data obtained from the school principals involved in the study show that in the 2022/2023 school year, there were 59,870 students of Polish origin and 4193 students from Ukraine enrolled in their schools. Therefore, Ukrainian students constituted just over 7% of all the students in the schools.

Due to the fact that the vast majority of children who came to Poland from Ukraine did not know the Polish language, even at the basic level, the school principals organized the so-called preparatory units (16%), where they could learn the Polish language and adapt to the new environment. Some students attended lower classes than their peers from Poland (30%). However, the students who knew Polish at least at a basic level were admitted to the same classes as their Polish peers (50%). Only a small group of directors (4%) mentioned other adopted measures, which were individually tailored to the student’s needs, e.g., adapting the facilities to the need for special education. The above-mentioned provisions introduced by the school principals showed that there was no single model for enrolling Ukrainian children into particular classes in the Polish educational system. This was partly due to the principals’ autonomy and their assessment of the Ukrainians’ needs and, as well, the obtained financial resources.

Due to the admission of students from Ukraine to Polish schools, most principals introduced changes in the organization of the work of the schools—80%, only 20% of the respondents did not see such a need (these cases concerned small rural schools with a small number of students from Ukraine). The changes implemented by the principals depended on the location of the school.

Table 2. List of the changes introduced in the schools’ work.

Description of the Introduced Changes	Countryside and Small Towns %	Large and Medium-Size Cities
Obtaining funds to conduct additional Polish language classes	10.0	11.0
Instructing the teaching staff how to work with refugee students	9.0	10.0
Providing psychological and pedagogical assistance, including spiritual support, for students from Ukraine	8.0	9.0
Hiring an assistant with knowledge of Ukrainian or a teacher from Ukraine	0.0	6.0
Conducting meetings and talks with parents of students of Ukrainian origin in order to prepare their children for the new environment	6.0	6.0
Purchasing teaching aids and learning materials for students from Ukraine	4.0	1.0
Providing material assistance for the family of a student from Ukraine	3.0	3.0
Obtaining funds for social assistance: providing meals to students in the school canteen	3.0	3.0
Conducting meetings and talks with parents of students of Polish origin before admitting students from Ukraine	2.0	2.0
Others	0.0	1.0
Total	45.0	55.0

lists all introduced changes in two categories of educational institutions: rural and small-town schools, and schools operating in medium-sized and large cities.

The opinions given by primary school principals show that one of the most frequently introduced changes related to the influx of Ukrainian students was the introduction of additional Polish language classes. In addition, a significant number of institutions applied for training for their pedagogical staff on ways of working with Ukrainian students and providing psychological and pedagogical assistance, especially in relation to the traumas experienced by the children. Equally numerous responses concerned meetings and talks with the parents regarding the requirements, conditions and rules of work in the Polish educational system. A difference was observed in schools in large and medium-sized cities in terms of employing an assistant with knowledge of the Ukrainian language or a teacher from Ukraine. Unfortunately, in schools located in smaller towns this was not possible due to insufficient financial resources.

The principals’ task was also to determine what types of activities addressed to Ukrainian students were the most difficult to implement in schools. Due to the fact that the question regarding the type of these activities was an open one, allowing the respondent to enter any answer, there was a need to code and define the most important categories of provided statements, without indicating percentages. Most indications concerned the following categories:

Activities targeting the education of Ukrainian children. Detailed solutions were assigned to this category, including, for example, organizing additional Polish language classes, providing remedial classes in other subjects due to differences in the curricula of the two countries, preparing conditions for working with students with special educational needs, solving teachers’ difficulties in assessing the quality of students’ work, recruiting teaching staff who spoke Ukrainian or Russian, employing intercultural assistants, and purchasing textbooks and teaching materials/aids to facilitate teaching/learning for Ukrainian children.

The refugee students had problems with understanding the principles, rules and values prevailing in the new school environment. The educational difficulties of these children were linked to differences in the education systems in Poland and Ukraine, including, for example, different grading systems. The Ukrainian education system uses a 12-point grading scale, but the students started to be assessed according to the Polish 6-point scale. Consequently, there appeared problems with understanding and accepting these rules. Furthermore, refugee students had difficulties in solving tests that checked their levels of knowledge in various subjects. This situation was linked to the existence of systemic differences between Polish and Ukrainian schools. Refugee children had different knowledge resources than Polish students.

Activities targeting psychological and pedagogical assistance, including spiritual support. The most typical difficulties faced by teachers in working with children who have experienced war trauma include psycho-emotional experiences such as depression, communication problems caused by the loss of the loved ones, and stress, in addition to problems with adapting to unfamiliar environments, nostalgia for home, etc. (Budnyk and Sajdak-Burska 2023). Therefore, these children, as well as their families, need special spiritual support. The principals organized help for the students by specialists at the schools: psychologists, pedagogues, special educators, therapists and, in occasional cases, support from clergy, i.e., from priests or catechists working at school. This was due to the children’s traumas or other emerging problems, i.e., reducing excessive aggressive behaviour (especially among Ukrainian boys), addressing difficulties in motivating students to learn, supporting their adaptation, helping children with disabilities, and providing emotional support for Ukrainian children’ parents. In addition, the principals cared for the emotional safety of the students and ensured a friendly atmosphere and acceptance, as well as the provision of spiritual and religious help, although there appears to have been a problem with reaching catechists who knew Ukrainian, especially in rural and small-town environments.

Providing spiritual support to refugee children from Ukraine was undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges for all specialists working in the school environment, the more so because war trauma often causes externally invisible suffering that affects the child’s general functioning at school. The spiritual support focused on the problems and experiences of particular children and their families. In turn, the spiritual–religious care offered in sporadic cases was intended to help people find inner peace and overcome their feelings of isolation and alienation.

Activities targeting integration in the school and local environment. The activities concerned not only teachers’ meetings and talks on integration issues, but also the organizing of various classes and events in which Polish and Ukrainian students participated together, often with their parents. The children learned about each other, their families, and their cultural differences. These activities were aimed at both integrating all students in regular educational work, eliminating the communication barriers, and shaping values such as tolerance, compassion, acceptance of ‘otherness’, justice and friendship. Some of the activities were organized by volunteers in cooperation with the school. In times of existential crisis or spiritual desolation, a child’s activities in or out of school (intellectual, artistic, or physical) can provide salvation or meaning (Frankl 1959). Ukrainian children were gradually introduced to the school environment and, at the same time, to the local environment where they lived. Moreover, efforts were made to involve them in active participation in school life.

Therefore, spiritual support for war children is considered from the perspective of Laura Jones’s theory (Jones 2005), which interprets spirituality in education in the following dimensions: spirituality as transcendence, spirituality as connection, spirituality as a whole, and spirituality as compassion; this is because “spirituality constitutes the meta-message of teaching”. Pedagogical interaction with refugee children should be based on providing a safe educational environment for intellectual development, mental and spiritual well-being, and information assistance.

Changes targeting the work of the school and classes. Due to the arrival of Ukrainian students, the numbers of students in some classes increased significantly, which resulted in the need to divide one class into two; therefore, additional space and financial resources had to be obtained, and principals had to adapt the educational process to the changing numbers of students. Additionally, because of the high ‘mobility’, or turnover, of Ukrainian students, constant modifications in the organization of work of some classes, and even schools, were observed. Most newly admitted students enrolled in schools during the school year, while others went back to Ukraine or moved to other cities in Poland. Additionally, the turnover in Ukrainian students influenced the social assistance provided to them. On the one hand, principals tried to obtain financial resources to provide meals to these students in the school canteen, and, on the other hand, their departures or arrivals made it difficult to plan the school budgets and the operation of school canteens.

Activities targeting the parents of Polish and Ukrainian students. Due to the war situation in Ukraine and the influx of Ukrainian families with children to Poland, school principals were obliged, as part of cooperation with the family environment, to organize meetings for both parents of Polish students and parents of Ukrainian students. The meetings with Polish parents were aimed at explaining changes in the functioning of the institutions associated with the admission of Ukrainian students, while the meetings with the parents of Ukrainian students were intended to familiarize them with the functioning of the Polish educational system. Moreover, some schools organized joint integration events addressed to parents and students from Poland and Ukraine.

In connection with the organizational activities introduced by the principals in schools, the activities considered to be priorities were identified. In the first place, they concerned organizing and including the Polish language classes instituted in order to eliminate language barriers, but also organizing psychological and pedagogical assistance, including spiritual support. All of this was meant to integrate Ukrainian students into the entire school community, and not only at the class level.

Next, the following undertakings were mentioned: providing students with basic non-material needs, such as psychological assistance for those with trauma, and other material needs including clothing, school supplies and meals.

Lastly, there were indications of activities associated with the need to employ a Ukrainian translator in some schools and to organize training for teachers in adapting educational requirements to the needs of Ukrainian students, i.e., including and adapting teaching content, methods, means, forms, and methods of assessment and communication. Single cases of eliminating aggressive behaviour among Ukrainian boys and organizing activities to prevent xenophobia were also mentioned.

Certain solutions introduced in schools by principals would not have been possible without the obtaining of additional financial resources. The sources from which these funds were obtained are presented in

Table 3. Sources of the obtained funds.

No.	Specification of the Obtained Funds	%
1	Funds of the managing body	44.0
2	Governmental funds	25.0
3	Individual sponsors	16.0
4	Non-governmental organizations	11.0
5	Other sources	4.0
Total		100.0

.

The collected data showed that it was the authorities managing schools, and in the Polish educational system, these are local governments, that allocated most of the financial resources needed for school activities to provide Ukrainian students with educational and social assistance. Also, other institutions joined in to finance some activities, which enabled the meeting of the schools’ needs in this area. As a result, the schools successfully managed the process of Ukrainian students’ enrolment.

Due to the above-mentioned diversity of organized activities targeting the Ukrainian students, the most crucial task for the school principals was to distinguish the forms of assistance that these students needed after their arrival in Poland. This was particularly important in the first months after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, when the inflow of refugees was very large. At present, it is difficult to provide precise statistics for particular months; however, in the principals’ eyes, the priority activities of the time included the following:

-

Providing Ukrainian children with stability and a sense of security, providing Polish language classes, and helping students to establish relationships with their Polish peers and adapt to the school environment by organizing integration activities with peers;

-

Employing assistants with a knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian, quick identification of deficits, providing psychological and pedagogical assistance, organizing additional classes to compensate for program differences;

-

Understanding the complexity of the situation and the need to consider each case individually, selecting the forms of assistance to suit the diagnosed conditions of particular students and providing emotional and spiritual support.

An equally important issue addressed in the research was the one of the cooperation between principals and teaching staff in terms of getting ready for the reception of Ukrainian students. After obtaining information from the governing bodies about refugees arriving in a given district, the principals’ task was to prepare teachers to work with refugee students. This task was difficult to accomplish due to the fact that the vast majority of Polish teachers did not know Ukrainian. The list of implemented activities is presented in

Table 4. Specification of principals’ activities targeting teachers.

No.	Specification of the Obtained Funds	%
1	Teaching school staff how to adapt Ukrainian students to a Polish environment	37.0
2	Conducting individual and group interviews with teachers or pedagogues within the same school	18.0
3	Creating and training teacher task forces	12.0
4	Introducing teachers to the Ukrainian educational system	3.0
5	Training teachers on assessing and classifying Ukrainian students	11.0
6	Recruiting specialist teachers from outside the school to carry out the training	8.0
7	Creating teams to coordinate detailed activities aimed at Ukrainian students	4.0
8	Conducting individual and group talks with teachers or educators from other schools to exchange experiences	3.0
9	Others	4.0
Total		100.0

.

The obtained data showed that school principals from both urban and rural environments organized many different types of activities for teachers in order to prepare them to work with students of Ukrainian origin. This was not an easy task, because the needs of refugee students concerned not only educational activities, but also the need for psychological and material assistance. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge of the Ukrainian language made the implementation of these activities much more difficult.

4. Discussion

Currently, the world scientific literature still does not have indications of many papers on issues related to the organization of schools’ work and the education of Ukrainian refugee children. This may be due to the fact that the problem is new, and time is needed to develop research concepts and conduct analyses. Despite such difficulties, it is worth paying attention to the research conducted by Daiva Jakavonyte-Staškuviene (2023) from Lithuania, which shows how Lithuania managed the influx of Ukrainian children into its educational system after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The Lithuanian authorities took steps to develop an appropriate model of language education and employ teachers from Ukraine to help children cope with the changed situation and the experienced traumas. Aid activities were conducted at the municipal level and centralized by the government, a decision which was probably caused by the small size of the country and a smaller number of refugees accepted from Ukraine, compared to Poland. The author of the Lithuanian research emphasizes that only half of the Ukrainian children who have arrived in the country are presently at schools, and no data are collected about the remaining ones. It can only be assumed that they have not enrolled in the Lithuanian school system and are probably continuing their education in the online mode in the Ukrainian system.

The data collected by UNICEF (2022) also showed that many children arriving from Ukraine are not yet enrolled in the national school systems of host countries. As of 31 July 2022, an estimated 650,000 Ukrainian children living as refugees in 12 host countries had not been covered by national education systems (UNICEF 2022).

As for Poland, the refugees themselves chose their destinations and showed a strong preference for large cities. This was probably due to the available jobs and schools in these places. Consequently, the number of students in urban areas was much larger than in rural schools. Undoubtedly, such choices resulted in difficulties in individualizing students’ assistance and recognizing their needs and problems, e.g., reluctance to learn, lack of motivation, feelings of anxiety, etc. However, the majority of refugee students from Ukraine who came to Poland received comprehensive assistance, both material aid and a child allowance of PLN 500 per month for each child; this is the same support that Polish children receive. In addition, learning assistance, psychological and pedagogical support and free social assistance, specifically, meals at school, textbooks and clothing, were provided. The forms of assistance provided were treated as equally important, and no attempt was made to prioritize any of them. In turn, in Lithuania, the psychological safety of the Ukrainian students was taken care of first (Jakavonyte-Staškuviene 2023). Other field studies conducted on the Ukrainian border by Schwartz et al. (2022) showed an array of needs and burdens affecting the mental health of children fleeing from war, elements which appear due to the changed social situation, deterioration of living conditions, general uncertainty and experience of numerous losses. These studies show that the assistance provided should be adapted to refugee children’s needs, and that these needs should be met in a coordinated manner.

War refugees’ children, who, like their families, are characterized by the symptom of ‘spiritual emptiness’, which is manifested by the loss of the meaning of life and its reduction to a hedonistic and short-term dimension, need spiritual healing through personal development (Solecki and Borda 2018). For this purpose, there are meditation centres or other spiritual healing on offer, including spiritual development training sessions and workshops, spirituality fiction films, classical music, art therapy, etc. (Walker et al. 2003). However, perhaps most importantly, these children need everyday social communication to understand their spiritual experiences based on interreligious dialogue or (non)religious spirituality (Rembierz 2018). After all, in the context of the “spiritual revolution, which involves a transition from religion to spirituality and a kind of sacralization of modernity or postmodernity” (Mariański 2021, p. 59), there are manifestations of ‘new spirituality’ that are not focused on transcendence, but on the inner world of man, specifically, non-religious spirituality. The new spirituality can be observed both in the ‘individuals’ small worlds’ (e.g., the traumatic experience of war, which is related to fear and the loss of loved ones), and in the community, society, when it comes to armed conflicts and disasters which threaten the life of a nation, or a nationality, etc. Then, a community expands the opportunities of communication, and gives a certain sense of identity, as people realize that they are not alone with their problems, but find themselves in a socio-cultural environment that provides spiritual support. This requires the so-called spiritual healing tools, various types of psycho-emotional support, which are successfully implemented in Polish schools.

The available research on helping refugee children from Ukraine reports a lack of systematic and comprehensive programmes and efforts to address the religious and spiritual needs of school age refugee children from Ukraine in Poland. However, in wartime, when people suffer and feel its effects in different ways, this type of support is necessary, both in the search for one’s internal peace and in overcoming the feeling of isolation. Therefore, providing spiritual–religious support should be included in planning psychological and pedagogical assistance at school. Bodies managing schools, churches and some non-governmental organizations may be helpful in implementing this type of activities. It remains crucial to reach people who need spiritual support and organize coherent activities in this area. As Małgorzata Pacek (2022) stresses, in crisis situations such as that seen in Poland after the influx of a large number of refugees, it is crucial that the state cooperates with society. People who have direct contact with refugees (officials, teachers, students and local authorities) should receive special support and accelerated training in multicultural education and tolerance for ‘others’.

The research conducted among Polish school principals showed that the Polish educational system accepted and continues to accept children from Ukraine. The principals prepared teachers to work with Ukrainian students, which made them more open to their needs. As in many European Union countries, Poland follows an integration model in the field of emigration policy, as foreign children go to school together with children from the host country, and they are admitted to classes according to their age or attend lower classes (Januszewska 2017). This research shows that the Ukrainian students have received the necessary support in the Polish educational system in learning the new language and were also included in the schools’ social activities, thanks to the efforts of school principals and teachers who were trained to work with refugees.

In turn, the Lithuanian research showed that it was culturally-close persons who helped Ukrainian children learn the Lithuanian language (Jakavonyte-Staškuviene 2023). Polish schools employed teachers or assistants with knowledge of the Ukrainian language, especially in large and medium-sized cities. In small towns and rural environments, such solutions were not available, due to limited financial resources and staff shortages. This forced the principals to take other solutions, as, for example, to increase the number of hours of the Polish classes in the weekly lesson plans.

5. Conclusions

The ongoing war in Ukraine, especially in the first period of its duration, resulted in an influx of a large number of refugees in Poland. Due to the fact that the majority of them were women and children, there appeared a natural, even spontaneous desire to help them, even by offering shelter at homes. This in turn meant that there was no need to create refugee camps in Poland. Municipalities became responsible for the education of the newly arrived children. The research showed that the new situation was a challenge for principals, because school environments were not always prepared to accept Ukrainian children, due to the already planned budgets, lack of teachers with knowledge of the Ukrainian language, and lack of a required number of specialists, i.e., psychologists, educators, therapists and catechists, who may provide spiritual-religious support. Besides, the new situation meant that Polish schools did not sufficiently coordinate activities, as no well-developed model for educating students from Ukraine existed; that is, there was no model which would take into account the differences between the Polish and Ukrainian educational systems in terms of the curriculum, subjects, different grading scales, and various school exams. Additionally, there were no specialists able to work with children experiencing war trauma, including those who could provide appropriate spiritual support.

Now, after a year-long experience in organizing the education of Ukrainian children, Polish educational institutions can share their practical knowledge in this area. The researchers drew attention to the need of building a coherent system of aid activities aimed at refugees that would combine educational activities with professional psychological, pedagogical and social help. The problem in many school environments is still the same—securing adequate spiritual support for those refugee children who need it. The initial lack of coordination of specialist activities, subject teachers’ actions and supervising bodies’ actions often resulted in additional crisis situations, which, combined with the students’ war experiences, affected their functioning in the new reality. Another issue that arose as crucial was the need to undertake integration activities within the school and local environment, among both Ukrainian children and their parents. These actions facilitate the process of adaptation to new conditions and prevent xenophobic behaviour.

The results of the research conducted in Polish schools showed that schools need to be prepared for changes which take place, not because of the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also the other unpredictable crisis situations occurring in the world. The experiences gained by Polish schools could be useful for educational systems in other countries.

The issue of the role of spirituality in the context of experiencing war trauma is so important that it is worth devoting more attention to it in scientific works. Because it is difficult to provide inner spiritual peace, it is necessary to at least point to this matter, a consideration which was also the purpose of the undertaken research.

It is difficult to predict the course of future events, i.e., to assess how long the current state of affairs will last, but students with refugee experience will remain present in the Polish education system. Accordingly, one should aware that, at present, schools should be open to dialogue and intercultural encounters, and should also meet the constantly changing problems of the globalized world.