Photo Credit: The Guardian (2026)
Following a rigorous two-year advocacy campaign led by the St James's Foreign Policy Group (SJFPG) alongside St Mary's Ukrainian School, the Department for Education has officially confirmed the reintroduction of a Ukrainian GCSE option for students across the United Kingdom.
This landmark decision marks a vital victory for tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who fled to the UK following Russia's full-scale invasion. Crucially, it ensures that displaced young people are no longer placed in the distressing position of having to study Russian as an alternative qualification due to a lack of native-language provision. Instead, students will have formal recognition to maintain their connection to their heritage, culture, and mother tongue within the British education system.
The announcement follows an intense, sustained effort spearheaded by SJFPG Founder and CEO Aliona Hlivco, alongside Inna Hryhorovych MBE and her team at the Ukrainian St Mary’s Trust, with dedicated daily coordination from Amélie Bamford. What began as a challenging uphill battle ultimately shifted policy momentum through coordinated engagement with lawmakers, educational bodies, and the media.
Photo credit: The Guardian (2026)
Critical to this success was robust cross-party backing in the Palace of Westminster. SJFPG extends its gratitude to Joe Powell MP, Alex Sobel MP, Jess Asato MP, Johanna Baxter MP, and Lesia Vasylenko for passionately championing the rights of Ukrainian children in Parliament and beyond. Furthermore, targeted media advocacy, driven by journalists including Matthew Weaver at The Guardian, Poppy Wood and Francis Dearnley at The Telegraph, and Bohdan Nahaylo at Kyiv Post, proved instrumental in bringing the issue to national prominence and keeping public attention focused on the welfare of refugee students.
With the Department for Education setting the framework for the new qualification, this milestone represents far more than an administrative adjustment; it is an affirmation of cultural resilience and identity for the Ukrainian diaspora in Britain. SJFPG hopes that this decisive action within the UK education framework will set a powerful precedent for other European and Commonwealth nations, ensuring that the next generation of Ukrainian youth are fully supported in preserving their language and heritage on the international stage.
For more information on the campaign, read The Guardian’s reporting here.