It is raining, and the teachers at Gharsa school, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, are unable to let their classes of lively five- and six-year-olds go outside to play.

Instead a boombox is set up in a covered courtyard, with a big speaker plugged in for extra volume. The children happily jump up and down to thunderous dance music, burning off pent-up energy beneath inspirational murals that say, in English, “One day we will be what we want” and “We plant a sapling to grow a homeland”.

The second message is especially ironic, because all 120 of the children at Gharsa, which means “seed”, are Syrian refugees, exiled from their homeland