Supplementary Schooling Mohamed Elhaddad Headteacher of the Libyan Islamic Bristol Supplementary School PhD Researcher at University of the West of England Mohamed2.elhaddad@uwe.ac.uk

What are Supplementary Schools? Who are they? Why SSs were set up? When was the 1st SS established? What are the purposes? Where are they based? How many are they in the UK? What do they do? How are they funded? 1. Complementary, Community, language, Mother-Tongue, Faith-based or Saturday Schools (any provision that offers educational opportunities for children, parents and communities who share an ethnic, language or cultural heritage out of school hours and independently from mainstream schools). 2. Parents from B&ME communities felt that the current education system in the UK failed to satisfy the educational needs of new arrival communities. 3. 2nd WW by Chinese community. 4. to help people settle and integrate within their new society while keeping their own believes whether religion, language, culture etc and to promote community cohesion and to help young people from the same religions and cultural backgrounds to get to know each other and to enhance the learning of young people who attend the schools in relation to the core subjects, 5. Operate at community centres, school, places of worship etc. 6. There are over 4000 school in the UK, over 38 Supplementary Schools in east and central Bristol 7. Vary enormously, some concentrating on raising achievement through study support in core subjects, community languages and transition programmes (Y6-7). Others offer a wide range of activities, outgoing and social events. 8. Pupils’ fee, donations and unsustainable fund. These community schools do not have the resources to make their voices heard, indeed many are struggling for survival. However, by exploring the vitality of SSs, policy makers may be aided in identifying ways in which to tackle the weak points of the current education system in the UK which fail to satisfy the educational needs of newly arrived communities (Tikly et al. 2002, Norton 2000).

“Educational experiences do not leave people as they were” (Pring, 2004). Children, Mainstream Schools, Parents, Society, (BMEYP) arriving and settling in Britain face significant difficulties affecting their educational achievement due to different language, background and faith (Gonzalez 1996). Parents from BME communities believe that their children most of the time underachieve due to language barrier. Children should integrate better with their community and society at large. Children are raised knowing their backgrounds, which should build a more stronger and creative individual. MSs : enhance performance and educational support to B&ME YP out of school time from professionals volunteer particularly in foreign languages that improve the results of GESCs and A level. Parents: much pressure is taken off parents who struggle to teach their children at home, that leads to happier parents, more stable and productive family to reinforce and sustain cultural values and identity. Society, filling the children’s vacuum which might be created by raising them not knowing their culture, heritage and religion and which can be abused by extremist/ segregate ideologies later in their life. Leading to managing cultural relationships (BME & wider) that empower the economical state.

Acknowledgement of SSs “Supplementary education complements much of what is being done within the mainstream and should play a full role alongside it…” Lord Andrew Adonis, 2007 “We are clear that supplementary schools have added to the educational experience of a significant number of young people and have contributed to the year-on-year improvement in attainment of Minority Ethnic groups.” Manchester City Council Report, 2006

UK Governmental Policies Education Act 2002 CH32 Part3, “made it easier for school governing bodies to provide facilities and services that benefit pupils, families and the local community directly”. Every Child Matter “partnerships between MSs & SSs should become more important in the moves to ensure pupils can Enjoy and Achieve; and Make a Positive Contribution” (Meer 2007). Ofsted “SSs can impact on YP’s achievement & participation, its Framework for Inspecting Schools (2003) requires inspectors to assess how well a MS works in partnership with parents and local communities including SSs” (Rosen 2006).

Children working hard to reach “ THE TOP ”

BCC's survey of SSs outcomes 8 out of 10 pupils felt SSs helped them with their MSs work. 83% of children completed their homework on time (compared to 37% previously) MSs confirmed that discipline- respect for teachers and classrooms have been increasing. SSs’ parental involvement in MSs increased from 17% to 93% While Bristol’s GCSE results remain very low across the board, the results of BME pupils have increased.

Summary Time spent at SSs can be a very significant factor in a young person's life, thus, SSs should be understood, valued, and acknowledged as key partners in the education system. SSs play a vital role to enhance the B&ME YP’s attainments that contribute to the political, economical and social contexts of our society, and help them to claim employments ladder.

Future work More attention to Children who are nationals of other EU and EEA states. My PhD Research is about the contribution of SSs that enhance the attainments of B&ME YP. Methodology, 3 case studies and a survey of 4 sets of questionnaires. Approach, Telling a story (Stake, 1995) Bristol Legacy Commission funded the 1st year’s tuition and now seeking fund. They may previously been asylum seekers or refugees in those states. Their linguistic background may also be complex. They may speak their mother tongue, an additional European language and now be faced with the prospect of acquiring skills in English as well. Methodology: because of the developments of the political and economical relationship between Libya and Britain, there is contexts to that which can not be ignored. In addition, considering the position of China in the world and also Chinese children here in Britain; they succeed in the mainstream school that also can not be disregarded, yet the research needs to be inclusive. But will those two SSs provide an in-depth understanding of the concept of the SS, so a Somalian SS was considered to balance the research. Somali is poor country, poor continent, poor people and desperate trying to get their children achieve better at the mainstream schools, where as Chinese are completely opposite. So, it was like one Somali SS due to their underachievement, Chinese because they are successful and Libyan medium standard.