The National Association of Black Supplementary Schools (NABSS) is a resource, information and advice centre for supplementary schools aimed at Black children and parents in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Supplementary schools for the children of Caribbean and African migrants in the UK were first set up in the 1970s to combat the impact of racism on the educational achievement of Black children. By 2013 there were around 50 Saturday schools in the UK for Black children. NABSS was formally established in 1987 as the National Association of Supplementary Schools (NASS), which in turn grew out of the Black Education Movement and Black Parents Movement that had been "active since the late 1960s to secure improvements in the education of Black children." Its first chairman was
John La Rose
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* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
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, and it initially received funding from the
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corp ...
before that was shut down by
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
's
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
government in 1989. The records of NASS are held at the
George Padmore Institute
The George Padmore Institute (GPI), founded in 1991 in Stroud Green Road, North London, by John La Rose (1927–2006) and a group of political and cultural activists connected to New Beacon Books,
Dr
Kehinde Andrews
Kehinde Nkosi Andrews (born January 1983) is a British academic and author specialising in Black Studies.
Andrews is a Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is the director of the Centre ...
, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at
Birmingham City University
, mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business"
, established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843—Birmingham College of Art
, type = Public
, affiliation = ...
, has noted that there has been little research about the Black supplementary school system in the UK because "Most of the effort to overcome racism in education
ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
focused on changes to mainstream schooling and policy. Andrews notes that "The biggest issue facing Black supplementary schools is the decline in attendance. Student numbers were at their peak from the late 1970s to the early 1990s." Andrews has published a book on the Black education movement in the UK, called ''Resisting racism: Race, inequality and the Black supplementary school movement'' (2013).
In 1997,
Diane Reay Diane Reay is a sociologist and academic, who is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge. She is noted for her study about educational inequalities among students in state schools in the United Kingdom. She has maintained that there ...
and Heidi Safia Mirza also conducted a small-scale study of four Black supplementary schools, using a genealogical approach, which found "evidence of a female-centred new social movement" that challenged assumptions about Black, female, and working-class agency.
Activist Nia Imara has stated: "It is no secret that the education system is failing black children and there is little or no focus on black history and heritage." Rapper and social activist Akala recounted going to a Black Saturday school as a child in the 1980s in his book ''Natives'', and credited the extra education in black history with helping to shape a positive identity for him as a teenager.
In 1996, Educator (Rosemary Campbell-Stephens MBE) was commissioned by Birmingham Partnership for Change (BPC) and the Supplementary School working group of BPC's Education Forum to undertake a small-scale review and evaluation of the then provision within the Supplementary School movement in Birmingham, UK. The Campbell report, A Review of Supplementary Schools in Birmingham 1996 was published by Birmingham Partnership for Change. the report identified eleven recommendations to empower, unite and develop the Saturday school movement in Birmingham.