Two weeks after the Ukrainian conflict broke out, CAGE issued an online survey to document if and how schools were engaging the topic. The survey centred on the following questions:
- Did your school talk about the Ukraine situation?
- What did they say in relation to Ukraine?
It also provided the opportunity for respondents to attach documentation, for example newsletters issued by the school, as well as fields to identify the school and contact information.
In the end 532 responses were received, of which 70 were discarded due to lack of clarity, detail or relevance, or for being duplicates. The remaining 462 responses formed the basis of this briefing.
However, during Israel’s 2021 attack on Gaza, Prevent securitised support for Palestine, even though it was widespread throughout the world.
In this CAGE briefing, 96% of survey responses confirmed support for Ukraine by their schools, 62% indicated their schools had even raised funds for Ukraine.
A small number of schools even raised funds specifically to donate military equipment, and/or to donate to organisations linked to the Ukrainian far-right, which has groups and individuals sympathetic to it in the UK.