Rainbow Club is a supplementary Saturday school for asylum seeking, refugee and vulnerable migrant children in Southeast London. The majority of Rainbow Club parents are unemployed and living in poverty with 66% having no settled housing. Living in a stressful and unstable home environment has a significant impact on displaced children’s
educational attainment, opportunities, confidence and wellbeing.

AFRIL’s Saturday school provides 38 weeks of specialist English and Maths tuition, alongside creative activities, sports, and wellbeing support and last year supported 119 primary age children. In addition, it provides school trips, holiday workshops and youth volunteering opportunities. By GCSE age, Refugee and asylum-seeking children are estimated to be 15.5 months behind non-migrant children in English and Maths GCSEs, and therefore, early intervention during the primary years has a pivotal role to play in reducing the gap.

On registration, 39% of children spoke little/no English, representing 19 different nationalities and 10 home languages. Notable nationalities are Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria, with a minority of children from Sudan, Albania, Kuwait, Ukraine and Sri Lanka. Families also have access to AFRIL’s other services: Advice and Advocacy; Foodbank and
Destitution; and Immigration.

Classes are delivered by highly experienced teachers with their own lived experience of migration, and supported by trained volunteer teaching assistants, who provide dedicated one-to-one support for children most in need. Rainbow Club has been awarded the Quality Mark by the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education and last year achieved School of Sanctuary status.

AFRIL will continue to embed and develop their Youth Council thereby increasing young peoples’ participation, enhance the literacy programme and widen young people’s horizons
through building on local partnerships.