Parents and communities can have a role in improving Bristol’s inner-city school attainment

Achievement of inner-city children in Bristol can be improved if schools take advantage of the knowledge and experience of parents and community, and their resilience.

Black children in Bristol are disproportionately affected by poor educational institutions – Cllr Jama

Watch the debate: Educational segregation in ‪#‎Bristol‬ is a pressing issue. Bristol city is ‘sleep walking into crisis’ says ‪Cllr … More

Shir: Wadatashiga Bulshada Soomaaliyeed ee Bristol – 10 January 2015

Wadatashi: Arrimaha Dhalinyarada, Waxbarashada & Horumarinta Bulshada Bristol

Parent-Teacher Collaboration: In It Together

Over the last three to five years, Bristol schools have taken productive steps to improve the engagement of parents although they ought to do more if they are to enable pupils remove hurdles to their advancement. The current engagement strategies, for example, should be looked at thoroughly and further developed to make schools be more democratically governed, but equally more responsive to the diverse needs of the local community.

Educational inequalities will deepen with apprentice style hiring and firing policies in schools

If the Government is committed to tackling educational inequalities in our schools, why the Education Secretary Michael Gove made recruitment of good teachers for inner city schools even harder than it already is?

King of the Endz

My mum says I am a dealer
My boys say I am the man
Mum says I am a disgrace
Boys say I am the boss
My mum says study
But my teacher knows I am not going anywhere.
My mum shouts change
But what other choices are there?

Every school can be a good school

Good inclusive school leadership, coupled with parental and community engagement, will inevitably result in successful local schools that communities can be proud of and rely on. Parents should not dessert local schools in times of difficulty and school leaders should not shut out external support service providers. The reality is that the majority of students are not going to get into these so called good schools because they are oversubscribed. However, what needs to be emphasised is that there are no bad schools. Schools are merely buildings. The interaction that takes place within them between all stakeholders is what makes some schools more successful than others.

Parents are the primary educators

The importance of education is not lost on Somali parents as they like any other group of parents would like to see their children succeed academically and professionally. During many community meetings around the UK, Somali parents have expressed their desire to see themselves and their children succeed in the UK through the attainment of educational qualifications and professional employment. They also made it clear that they want to integrate into wider society in order to provide their children with the best possible opportunities that this country has to offer. However, most of the Somali parents feel that some in school and wider social factors are hampering their children from succeeding academically.

In school factors are factors that are directly related to the schools and which takes place within the schools themselves. Among the most complained of in school issues are a lack of leadership, poor teaching standards, lack of permanent teachers, low teacher expectations and in some extreme cases, institutional racism.

Press Release: Educational Debate on Somali Pupils in Bristol

On Saturday 20 March, the Somali Educators’ Forum, supported by the Somali Resource Centre, hosts a debate to discuss the roots of Somali pupil underachievement in Bristol schools.