Case Study

Introduction

The Iraqi Community School is the only Voluntary Aided Church of England Secondary School in Birmingham. It is a mixed comprehensive complementary school for pupils aged 11-16. Children of different faiths attend the school.

Arrangement for a Community Languages Complementary School

Mrs Arar arrived at St Albans CE School in 1997 as an EAL Teaching Assistant supporting the existing mainstream GCSE Arabic teacher, who was primarily a Maths teacher. The majority of students come from the local Yemeni community. Mrs Arar later took over mainstream Arabic teaching achieving good GCSE results. She is now Head of EAL at St Albans. Day-time Arabic classes hold the same status within the school as French or Spanish classes.

The complementary Arabic classes started in September 2006 and took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 16.00-17.00. Students were divided across beginners and intermediate classes with some mix of ages. Approximately 80% of the students were from St Albans and the other 20% were primary school children and adult members of the local community.

Lessons stopped in September 2007, but it is hoped to reopen them again next academic year.

History of the project

In 1986, Mrs Arar set up a voluntary Iraqi Community School on Saturday mornings.

She noted that once students had achieved passes in GCSE Arabic, numbers from the Iraqi and other Arabic speaking communities attending the school started to fall. Also, some new arrivals to the UK were encouraged to attend mosque schools to learn Arabic through the Qu’ran rather than attend the Community School. This, however, only taught them Qu’ranic Arabic as opposed to the pure language and Arab culture taught at Mrs Arar’s school. She also found it difficult to retain volunteer support from parents.

Mrs Arar then approached the headmaster of St Albans CE School with an idea to open a complementary school in addition to the mainstream Arabic classes. She had three aims:

1. To continue the work she had started with the Iraqi Community School.
2. To develop a relationship between the maintained and complementary schools. This would be achieved by building a firm foundation in Arabic skills, in particular reading and writing, among local primary students, to help them achieve good GCSE results in the future.
3. To develop herself professionally with the aim of becoming a qualified Arabic teacher.

The Headteacher welcomed the opportunity to improve GCSE results at the school and offered Mrs Arar free use of the premises in the evenings until 6pm. Funding for teaching expenses and materials came from a Birmingham Local Authority Supplementary Schools Grant.

Monitoring progress

A number of mainstream language students attended the after-school complementary lessons and one Kurdish girl, a complete beginner, passed her GCSE Arabic after just one year by attending both sessions, attaining a grade C.

The syllabus is based on an amalgamation of materials and books from Jordan and Iraq and the GCSE framework. Inspiration is also drawn from modern language teaching methodology. Course content includes exposure to different kinds of Arab culture as well as comparisons with UK culture. Mrs Arar constantly researches to find new Arabic materials on the market and she attends community language teacher training courses held at Moseley Language College.

Successes

The partnership has brought extra self-confidence in the students as most do not have English as a first language. They were encouraged by friends and relatives who saw them gain an interest in reading Arabic and then do well at GCSE at the end of the year.

Their GCSE results helped them to gain places at colleges and last year one student got a job on the basis of his Arabic ability and exam results.

Some women or wives also attended the classes promoting the school as a social centre for the local community.

Challenges

The complementary school is not currently running as Mrs Arar has to both manage and teach single-handedly and she is unable to commit the extra time given her other teaching duties at St Albans. She also has a problem finding support from people who are qualified teachers, have gone through CRB checks and are available after school for 2 hours.

Students are disappointed that the complementary school is not running this year as they will miss out on an opportunity to develop their Arabic skills and gain extra GCSE support through St Albans. Demand is still there and there are plenty of students asking to sign up. Mrs Arar feels that even if the maintained school offered to help find another teacher to re-establish the evening Arabic programme, it would still be difficult as she would have to oversee the new teacher who would have to be paid from the complementary school grant.

There are other Arabic teachers at the school but their day-time commitments prevent them from being able or willing to teach after school. The local authority grant pays very little and no one is willing to work voluntarily.

Future plans

This is very much a one-woman band and Mrs Arar is the only one who has the inclination and passion to get the complementary school going again. She hopes to restart it next year and will consult with St Albans to check whether the facilities will still be available to her. The plan would be to open three classes, but for this she would need two teachers to share the teaching with her, principally on a voluntary basis. She will approach St Albans teachers again and if this proves unsuccessful, she will look to her other Arabic contacts in the city.

About the School