‘BME Achievement – Meeting the Challenge’ Conference 2008
In June Sheffield hosted the ‘BME Achievement – Meeting the Challenge’, education conference looking at the achievements of Black Minority Ethnic pupils. This offered a forum for educational practitioners to share their expertise and professional experience in this field.
Sheffield City Council's Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS) aims to raise the standards of achievement by providing support to meet the educational needs of children and young people from ethnic minorities, including those who arrive here from other countries. They also aim to increase social cohesion between different cultural, religious and ethnic groups
One successful programme is the Sheffield Junior Fellowship. This is an out-of-school-hours ethnic minority study support programme which was launched in 2000. Over the last seven years increasing numbers of young people have registered onto the programme. The method of support is designed to enhance the aspirations, achievement and attainment of pupils in targeted ethnic minority groups. The central aim is to increase the numbers of ethnic minority pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs and then progressing on to further and higher education.
Participants attend approximately 15 Saturday study events per year that focus on the core subjects (English and Maths) and personal development. Parental engagement, mentor support and role-modelling are embedded within the programme.
An independent consultant has reported that a large majority of students in the Fellowship gain higher final GCSE grades than predicted often outperforming equivalent ethnic groups nationally.