Saturday schools
Since the 1940s, community-run Saturday schools have provided supplementary education for Black children across the UK, teaching a much more diverse curriculum than their mainstream counterparts. Despite facing challenges, these schools still play a vital role in teaching young people about Black British history, alongside a range of other educational resources, writes app developer and CEO Kayleigh Oliver.
After the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the global Black Lives Matter protests, the question of why pupils in UK schools aren’t taught more about Black history was frequently raised.
Recognising the importance of a diverse curriculum and inclusive education, the Welsh government responded by coming up with and actively taking steps to implement its Race Equality Action Plan (REAP). The plan sets out a plan to tackle structural racial inequalities in Wales in order to make ‘meaningful and measurable changes to the lives of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people by tackling racism’ and achieve ‘a Wales that is anti-racist by 2030’. The UK, Scottish and Northern Irish governments are yet to take similar steps towards such an inclusive plan.
‘In the post-war period, Saturday schools were established by Black communities’
But since the 1940s, the Black community itself has supplemented the education of its children through Saturday schools. Also known as supplementary schools, these are community-run organisations that aim to teach more diverse subjects. Responding to a gap in the UK’s Eurocentric education system, they run on Saturdays as children are in mainstream schools (and because the adults who work in them, often on a voluntary basis, generally have other jobs) during the week.
In the post-war period, Saturday schools were established by Black communities around the world; many of those in the UK were set up by newly arrived African and Caribbean immigrants. During the 1960s and 70s, there was an even greater need for these schools. Hundreds of children – predominantly from Caribbean backgrounds – were labelled ‘educationally subnormal’ (ESN) by the mainstream school system and received a lower standard of education as a result of this misclassification. In response, Black communities came together determined to inform parents of this failure and provide their children with the full education to which they were entitled.
Saturday schools not only taught the core curriculum subjects at the time, they also integrated Black history. In 2020, director Steve McQueen released his short film Education, which aired on BBC 1. Based on the experience of a family affected by an ESN school and the Saturday school that helped them, the film brought the issues to the wider British public. We are now hearing more stories of how ESN schools have shaped the lives of those unfortunate enough to be wrongly placed into them.
‘A more diverse curriculum would benefit all children’
In 1999, the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence recommended amending the national curriculum to value cultural diversity and prevent racism. Twenty-five years on, this still hasn’t happened.
So what can we do to ensure the education of our young people is more inclusive and diverse than what we were taught when we were at school? We could make greater use of existing Saturday schools, but they face a number of challenges: they are usually staffed by volunteers and some are struggling to cope with the cost-of-living crisis, rising energy bills and high prices for premises.
One long-standing Saturday school is currently at risk of closure. The Croydon Supplementary Education Project (CSEP) in south London was set up by members of the Windrush generation 43 years ago, but the landlord now wants to sell the building. CSEP is currently running a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to purchase the building and keep the school running. ‘Through education we have changed the life chances of thousands, securing the grades for Russell group universities and powering their great careers beyond. Our students benefit from an established team of highly experienced educators dedicated to nurturing academic excellence, each learner equipped with cultural awareness and aided to reach their full potential for the benefit of our tomorrow,’ it says.
Alongside Saturday schools, there is a range of other educational resources focused on Black British history. They include books such as Black and British by historian David Olusoga, materials from the Black History Month website, podcasts such as the History Hotline and school training sessions from the Black Curriculum. Companies are also helping to fill the gap, including my own, Junction 5 Studios. Our FOBBS app helps teachers and educators to integrate Black Britons into the national curriculum year round.
Ensuring Black children are taught about Black history would make them more engaged in school and feel represented in what they learn. But having a more diverse curriculum would benefit all children, helping them to develop their creative and critical thinking skills, cultural understanding, and allyship. It would link us all and fill in the gaps in our shared history.
Kayleigh Oliver is an app developer and CEO of Junction 5 Studios currently developing the educational platform FOBBS.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Runnymede Trust.
Join the fight for racial justice: support the Runnymede Trust’s work by making a donation.
Photo by PPD on Pixnio
