After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a high number ofUkrainian refugee children came to the Czech Republic, a countrywith little previous experience with refugee schooling. This studyexplored how Czech lower secondary schools in the 2022/2023academic year managed to adapt to Ukrainian refugee students.We collected data from six schools that received high numbers ofUkrainian students; we interviewed principals, teachers, Ukrainianstudents, and their parents. The findings show that principals andteachers prioritised the psychological dimension of school adapta-tion in terms of the well-being of the Ukrainian students, and thesociocultural dimension in terms of building their social relation-ships with Czech peers and teachers. Academic adaptationtook second place. This prioritisation contributed to creatinga pleasant schooling experience for the Ukrainian students butalso resulted in lower academic demands on them. This may nega-tively affect their future educational opportunities.

DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2024.2362965
ISSN: 17475104