Case Study

Introduction

Masjid Hamza has its origins dating back to the 1960s, when Muslims from the Indian sub-continent settled in Birmingham. Since it was first established, the Mosque has always provided a range of educational programmes to meet the needs of the local population. The evening madrassa caters for the teaching of the Qur'an to young people, and the resident Imam provides dars ul-Qur'an (Qur'anic commentary) on weekends. An Urdu language school also runs on weekends.

The partnership

They have recently established a partnership with Moseley School, a language college. In the planning stages of the partnership, the Head teacher and language staff of Moseley School worked together with staff from Masjid Hamza to draw up an action plan. The initial stage of the collaborative work included getting the Urdu teachers from the madrassa to attend Moseley School and train in new teaching methods. Additionally, the madrassa arranged for 10 of their Urdu language students who would sit GCSE Urdu in 2008 to attend Moseley School in evenings on a weekly basis; the performance of these students is being monitored and they are aiming for A or B grades for their exams.

Impact

There were initial challenges to implementing this project, but the benefits were soon observed by different parties involved and many from around the Birmingham area showed great interest in this collaborative work.

The madrassa teachers received useful knowledge on good teaching practices and exam preparation from Moseley School; improved teaching techniques have been observed and in-house training for other colleagues could be provided by these teachers. The students participating are enjoying themselves and have shown improvements in their language learning. Initially, the madrassa had difficulties getting parents to sign up for this project; however, the parents soon saw the benefits of the partnership, and many expressed enthusiasm for enrolling their children into the project for next year.

An event to highlight the benefits of mainstream schools and supplementary schools working in partnership took place in February 2008. 16 supplementary school teachers from various supplementary schools around Birmingham attended the meeting. Various members of staff from both Moseley School and Masjid Hamza spoke of their experiences during this project and of the benefits of the partnership. Participants also felt that a stronger sense of trust and community has been built between different sectors through working together.

Successes

• Sharing good practice between mainstream and supplementary schools
• Preparing madrassa students for GCSE Urdu exam at Moseley School
• Generating great interest of mainstream school and supplementary school partnership in the wider community

Challenges

• Initially to persuade the parents of students at the madrassa to allow their children to participate
• The madrassa has very limited resources; it has limited access to ICT and other teaching equipment, and the resource issue affected its ability to transport children between schools and to organise the event for the wider community

Future plans

• 10 madrassa students will sit their GCSE Urdu exam at Moseley School in May 2008
• Plans are underway to work with the English department at Moseley School to produce teaching material to improve the English level of the students at the madrassa
• Further promotion of this project and others of its kind more widely and effectively

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