We are absolutely delighted to share that The Abbey’s Refugee Homework Club has been shortlisted for a BBC Make a Difference Award!

The BBC Make a Difference Awards recognise those who improve the lives of others where they live and we are very proud that the Homework Club is a finalist in the Community Group Award category.

This honour is thanks to every single volunteer who has supported the Refugee Homework Club – staff and students, current and former – over the past 15 years. The winner will be announced on September 24 at the BBC awards evening and we are inviting anyone who has been involved with the club to join us for our own celebration on Tuesday 29 September from 16:00-17:30.

As a proud finalist, in such a competitive category, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to share how the Refugee Homework Club began and the impact that it has made.

Abbey physics teacher Mr Hills currently runs the club, with the support of Sixth Form volunteers, and explains that, “Refugee Homework Club is a very important means for our students to give something back to the local community. It helps the children of refugee in the Reading area with their homework, improving their English and math skill, while at the same time it’s also helping the parents of those children with their English skills and enabling them to to do administrative tasks filling out forms and so on.”

Rasha regularly comes to the Homework Club with her children and says, “I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate The Abbey School for their support and assistance to all of us. Their help really means a lot to me and made all the difference in my life and my children’s life. I do not know how our life would be without you.”

Her family moved to Reading in 2023 and started attending the Refugee Homework Club that year. Her son Mohammed shared that Abbey students help him with his maths and English and he enjoys coming because, “I like to learn” and movingly said that when he’s at the club he feels, “welcome and warm”.

Rasha explained that, “when we came at the beginning we didn’t know how the systems worked, especially for my second daughter who at that time was in Year 6. Things here in the UK were totally different. When we joined The Abbey’s Homework Club they explained everything to my daughter and within two months she achieved a lot, especially in maths and English. My youngest daughter moved from set three to set one within three months. I was so pleased.” It is a huge credit to everyone involved that Rasha says that her family feel “safe and valued” at the club.

Deborah West is a volunteer at Reading’s Refugee Support Group and helps to run the homework club at The Abbey. She explains that, “The homework club provides the children of refugee families with a safe place that they can come and get additional support with their maths and their literacy and their language skills. But the families come because they know they’re going to get a lovely welcome here at The Abbey.”

Deborah goes on to explain why the club is so meaningful, “It’s vitally important as the Homework Club helps the children over a period of time to overcome any misunderstandings that they may have in their learning and any gaps that they may have in their learning so that they can confidently go forward in their own schools.”

She described the change that she’s seen in one child over the past 18 months, “I’ve seen a dramatic change with one little boy who used to come to the homework club and insisted on just doing maths problems. But with just the right amount of encouragement from the girls and his mum, he now enjoys writing. He recently wrote a report about an endangered animal and he was just so proud when he read it to me. Through this newfound confidence, you can see what a delightful, polite, and articulate young man he is.” Deborah continued, “Another one of our parents has been coming to the homework club with her children and she would bring her homework with her too when we would work through this. But I’m so pleased and proud to say that she has GCSEs now in maths and English and she is now studying to be an interpreter and she volunteers to help other families newly arrived in Reading.”

While the children are being tutored by Abbey students, their parents received vital support in the classroom next door from Deborah and other volunteers from Reading Refugee Support Group. Deborah explains, “we sit with the parents and we support them in any way that we can. It may be giving them help to contact their own GP or pointing them to other services that may be available to them. Often our parents are enrolled in maths and English classes and they bring their own homework with them and we’ll sit and work through it together. Really, we’re directed by what their needs are on any particular day.”

So what does Deborah think of The Abbey students who volunteer? “I think the Abbey students here are absolutely amazing. They are so kind to the children and they have an endless amount of patience with the children. It’s a testament to the girls here that when the children arrive, they go bounding into that room. But more special than that is that the girls themselves look so pleased to see the children. That’s really, really special to witness. The difference they make is immeasurable. The children know that without a doubt they’re going to get the help that they need. As one little boy put it, when he brings his homework here, he knows he’s going to get the help that he needs from the girls. They work through the homework together so that he can go into school the next day and he can understand the lesson.”

Volunteering at the club clearly means a lot to our Abbey students and they get a lot out of it, as well as the children they help.

Elsa in Upper VI, explained that, “I got involved because I really wanted to give back and show that we care for the broader community. It’s such a rewarding experience. You see them coming back every week and progressing in their learning. We get to help them with a variety of things – it could be English, it could be maths or extra reading. It’s also not just solely about education, we also ask them a lot of questions about how their day is and we talk about what they’ve done in their week. It’s really nice to connect with them in that way.”

Nusaibah, Upper VI also enjoys the relationship that grow, “I think what I enjoy most about taking part in the Refugee Homework Club is the connections that you really build with the students, especially because a lot of them come in after a long day of school and they just need someone to talk to and someone to have a bit of fun with. So, it’s a nice for us and them as well whilst they’re learning. I personally get a lot of joy from sort of seeing the progression of students and also feeling like I’m doing something better for my community. A lot of the time we don’t realise how lucky we are until we meet someone who’s come from a different sort of lifestyle and it really helps us appreciate what we have.”

Lalajoy, who completed her A level this summer, shared what she enjoyed most about volunteering was, “Having fun with these kids. I love working with the children, even though sometimes they can be stubborn or lose their focus, they’re really good and it’s always very easy to get them back on track. I love laughing with them, they’re so funny and love making jokes. There’s no way you can get bored with them and it’s such a pick me up in my day!”

“I have a very specific memory of a day that went awfully, full of bad news, and I wanted to just go home and cry – but I still had to go to the Refugee Homework Club. I was dreading it to begin with, but these children put me in such a good mood and by the end I wanted to cry – but with happy tears! I was so grateful that they’d made my day so much happier and turned it into a good day. These children have made me so much happier in general in my life.”

So how did the club begin? Mr Hills took over the reins of running the Refugee Homework Club 8 years ago when the founding teacher, Julia Turkington, left. Mrs Turkingham was passionate about developing students’ social and cultural knowledge and used to book speakers every week from charities to politicians.

Mrs Turkington explains that, “One memorable regular contributor was Reading Refugee Support, and I’m sure girls will never forget a first hand account from a Rwandan genocide survivor. One day they asked me if our girls could help some of their young asylum seekers with their homework. It was easier to invite them into school, so the homework club was born.”

“The mothers of the young asylum seekers who brought their children to the school often had very young children, and we provided refreshments for them so they could chat to each other while their older children were getting one to one support from our sixth formers.I am sure it was important for the mums to have social interaction.”

“We ran sessions twice a week, and reached about 25 young children who were helped at any one time. The asylum seekers’ children were proud to get high marks for their school work, and our girls benefitted hugely in not just donating to charity but forming personal attachments. One 6th former later set up a similar club at her university. For me, it was important for our girls to have understanding and compassion for people whom the press so often stigmatized, and to realise our common humanity. They learnt so much and were proud of their contribution. I am delighted that it has continued in Ed’s safe hands.”

The Abbey School is always striving to contribute to a community that we are proud to be a part of and be seen as a force for good in Reading and beyond. The Refugee Homework Club is a wonderful example of this.

15 years later, after that first request for Abbey students to help some young asylum seekers, the Refugee Homework Club is still transforming lives. We are so proud of every single student and staff member that has volunteered to make it such a huge success. To be a finalist in the BBC Make a Difference Award is a testament to you all – congratulations!

If you have been involved with the Refugee Homework Club in any way and would like to attend our celebration on September 29, please sign up here – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bbc-make-a-difference-award-celebration-tickets-1994295718178