A supplementary school is a community-based initiative that provides additional educational support for children also attending mainstream schools. They are often geared to also provide mother-tongue and cultural classes, sports and arts activities such as music and dance. John Lyon’s Charity has always been a huge supporter of supplementary education and at the forefront of the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education (NRCSE), and subsequent merger with the YPF Trust, announced in April 2022. The Charity has funded many supplementary schools on their journey to success and one excellent example of this is Organisation of Young Africans (OYA).
OYA was founded in 2000 by Firinne Ni Creachain on the Grahame Park Estate, a significantly deprived area of Barnet. It was established due to the underachievement of local young people, many of whom were from Africa. Firinne Ni Chreachain, Founder of OYA said: “I spent the core of my career in Africa, I then married an African and we had a daughter who is half African. When we landed in England, I saw what my daughter was having to handle, and it was a big motivation to start OYA. We started out primarily as a Saturday school teaching maths, science and English – core subjects, because at that stage in 2000, Africans were said to be underperforming and we felt we needed to do something about that. Many of these children were coming, as we say, “fresh off the boat” from Africa and when they came into England, they felt very disorientated and lost.”
OYA has now been delivering high quality supplementary education for children and young people of African heritage for over two decades. As it became more established, a dedicated team of committed teachers, staff and even former students of OYA, were hired to run the supplementary school on weekends, after school and throughout the school holidays. The activities ranged from formal National Curriculum lessons to vocational training, drama, dance and drumming, football, fashion and public speaking.
In 2015, OYA became one of the first supplementary schools in the country to be awarded ‘Special Distinction’ status by the NRCSE for disseminating good practice to other supplementary schools. To gain a Special Distinction Award you needed to have already gained a Gold Award from the NRCSE and clearly evidence successful, imaginative programmes of study that help children and young people achieve excellent results. OYA has since maintained this sector-leading standard and continues to deliver exceptional all-round high quality supplementary education on a daily basis. This well-regarded supplementary school annually supports around 120 pupils aged 10-19 years old, in addition to helping parents understand and navigate the education system, where many families have English as a second, third or fourth language, juggle multiple low-paid jobs and live in overcrowded or single parent households.
Parents are encouraged to engage with their children’s education through a variety of parenting projects and parent volunteering programmes. Family support is a core theme that flows throughout OYA, so it’s no surprise that Firinne and the team at OYA are seen as parental figures.
John Lyon’s Charity believes supplementary education to be an important vehicle for channelling direct support to a variety of communities and since 2008 has awarded OYA £520,000 in grants. Firinne continues: “OYA loves John Lyon’s Charity. I tell funders all the time to be like John Lyon’s Charity. Funding from John Lyon’s Charity is excellent because they understand about our funding needs. They visit, they talk to us, they ask what we need and that’s what we love about them. They know what the work is and feel it. We don’t need to explain to John Lyon’s Charity. They get it.”
John Lyon’s Charity is very proud to support such an important and influential organisation, which has made and continues to make a huge impact in the borough of Barnet through supplementary education.