In Manchester's Moss Side, a visionary community leader and 17-25 year olds create "the school you'd wish you'd gone to"
Here’s the second of two blogs, tracking innovative community-driven responses to the cost-of-living and post-Covid crisis besetting many families and locales (the first one here).
The Rekindle “supplementary” school in Moss Side, Manchester was launched this January. 13-to-16-year-olds on weekdays attend after school, with Saturday morning sessions at the city’s Whitworth art gallery. Here’s how they describe themselves (and also, a great evocation in the embed above)::
Rekindle was born from the dreams of an award-winning charity founder and former teacher, Ruth Ibegbuna. The supplementary school is essentially led by an active, young management group from South Manchester all aged between 17-24.
We have all grown up attending South Manchester schools and understand the tensions between underfunded schools and young people; many of the problems have been worsened by the pandemic.
A pure love for education and the opportunities it can provide has been caught in a crossfire. That is why we have set up a supplementary school that will focus on providing Support, Nourishment encouraging Achievement and to Protect young people.
Rekindle recognises it takes considerable understanding to ignite the embers of soulful learning: communities, families, day schools, role models, nutritious meals, an awareness of physical and mental wellbeing and the creation of flexible networks to support young people.
With a rounded and responsive team of dedicated professionals, we’ll encourage young people to dare to aspire to achieve their highest potential. Daring to dream is the beginning of our young people achieving things they may not yet understand is theirs for the snatching.
Put very simply; we are a group of young people and radical teachers forming the school we all wish we’d attended!
As a Guardian article last year noted;
Although open to all teens from working-class communities, Rekindle is inspired by the 70s black supplementary movement. Moss Side, where the school is based, is often “unfairly stigmatised as a community characterised by crime”, explains Ibegbuna, so it was important to signify strength, but also get across that “without knowledge and critical thinking, the community cannot prevail”.
We also note that conviviality - artistic expression, but also good meals - are essential parts of Rekindle’s method. From their About page:
Although 80% of teachers report seeing pupils come into school hungry, teachers themselves are unable to do anything about it. ReKindle recognises the vital links between nutrition and the physical and mental development of our young people and has built a programme of growing fresh fruits and vegetables, providing young people with a nutritious meal and supporting their learning with expert mentoring and tuition.