Case Study

Introduction

Moseley School A Language College is a large secondary school located in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham. 86% of its students are Asian and a substantial number are from Arabic and Urdu speaking backgrounds. As a specialist Language College, it was keen to capture the potential for its students to learn these languages to a good standard.

Collaboration

Within its remit to extend services into the community, Moseley School approached the Hamza Mosque and Islamic Centre with a proposal to engage in a partnership project to offer modern facilities and teaching methodologies, and opportunities for students to formalise their learning. Hamza was the obvious choice of partner as it was already popular among Moseley students as a place to study the Holy Quran, Arabic and Urdu. A meeting was held in October 2007 with the Coordinator from Hamza Mosque involving the Moseley School Head Teacher, the Language College Director and Head of the Language Department, This meeting resulted in the establishment of collaboration between the two and the drafting of an action plan.

As a first element of the action plan, 10 students were selected for complementary sessions to prepare and coach them for their GCSE exam in Urdu. This pilot session took place at Moseley School, although staff from Hamza managed it. Moseley teachers participated in this training session and Moseley supplied additional resources: GCSE syllabus, training in a modern method of teaching; use of white board to play games; and teaching through ICT.

Worksheets and practice past papers were also provided. This two-hour session went very well: the students were well behaved and they gained as much information as possible in the available time.

Following this, senior staff from Moseley school visited staff and students at Hamza Mosque’s complementary school. They observed a more traditional style of teaching, which was well organised. The students knew what they were learning and recognised that they were responsible for their own learning.

As a result of the visit, it was agreed that the two would openly share information and resources to benefit the students, a process which continues to develop. Following the successful pilot session, a weekly class has been established which will run up to the exam in the summer.

In November 2007, Moseley School organised a full day community language conference, which was well attended by community language teachers from a variety of locations within the region including Birmingham and Sheffield. The day included workshops and teaching techniques for complementary school teachers. The Coordinator of Hamza Mosque also attended and found it very useful in further promoting Urdu at his own centre.

Impact

This collaboration has already provided many benefits, including developing community links, gaining a mutual appreciation of what each organisation is doing and what their agendas are; sharing information about students, improving community cohesion and improving the attainment of students by facilitating GCSE in community languages.

Successes

• Students were motivated and gained further learning opportunities that Moseley School provided.
• The visiting teachers from Hamza received training in exam technique and preparation including ICT to create and manage worksheets and teaching resources.
• The students received a wider variety of learning opportunities both from the complementary school and Moseley School.

Challenges

• It was difficult to convince complementary school teachers to join this scheme in the first instance as they were uncertain of its intentions, although this was quickly overcome when they gained an appreciation of the motivation of Moseley school.
• The timing was a concern for Moseley because complementary schools tend to run after 5 o’clock and during weekends.
• Because of work commitments, Moseley found it difficult to get complementary school teachers to meetings during the working week. Meetings therefore need to be arranged after school time.

Development

The students that have taken part in this programme have been entered for GCSE Urdu, and the programme will continue to train new cohorts. In addition the partnership would like to introduce Arabic GCSE, which they believe will further engage and motivate students, enhance their learning and improve achievement. Moseley also aims to expand the programme to include other complementary schools so that a larger number of students can benefit from formal learning and accreditation of their knowledge of their mother tongue.

About the School