Black boys can make the grade; Academic urges city to take on project tackling underachievement: Education.

Byline: Diane Parkes

BIRMINGHAM is being urged to take up a pioneering education project aiming to help black boys succeed in school.

Academic Dr Tony Sewell has visited the city to drum up support for the Generating Genius among local schools, universities and within the local education authority.

Dr Sewell is hoping to replicate a project in which a group of 30 black boys took part in summer schools over four years and saw their GCSE grades improve.

But he says he needs financial and practical help to take on another group of youngsters.

"Generating Genius was responding to the continual problem of why boys of Caribbean origin do badly in schools," he says. "The problem was also manifesting itself in Jamaica which is 99 per cent black so I had a hunch that it was a much more complex problem than the knee jerk reaction of teacher racism.

"I felt that what we were struggling with was the issue of nurturing our young men so that they wanted to better themselves."

Dr Sewell, director of the Science, Maths and Information Technology Centre in the department of Educational Studies at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, set up a project in both his home college and universities in the UK.

"We selected a group of boys whose parents had never been to university and who had an interest in science. We took that group of students to Jamaica for a summer school," he says.

"We then continued that summer school at universities in the UK. We started with ten boys and we then added 20 to the group so that we had 30 in total."

Those boys spent four summers at special schools run at Leeds and Brunel universities, but they were expected to reach high expectations.

The boys, who were aged 11 at the beginning of the project, were treated on a par with 18-year-old university students and were set various problem-solving tasks in which they were encouraged to think "outside the box".

At the same time they were offered a range of physical and cultural activities with the backing of emotional support and counselling.

Dr Sewell, who has written about the projects in his book Generating Genius, says the results speak for themselves as all of the boys went on to pass nine GCSEs at grade C or above.

And now he is keen to replicate the project - in Birmingham.

"We are looking to recruit our next cohort of young men," he says. "And we are looking for support from Birmingham.

"It obviously costs money to organise the Generating Genius programme but if the model works then it is worth the investment. When the alternative is high levels of exclusion and underachieving then it is not expensive.

"We need to invest in these kinds of "long pipeline" models but there are not enough of them in the UK. Too often the Government targets its schemes at sixth formers but boys who are already in the sixth form are already motivated towards university. By engaging boys when they are much younger, it is possible to see the kind of positive development we have seen."

And he says it is imperative that we do address the needs for these young black men, to prevent them turning to gangs when they are not achieving in education. "We actually called our group the 'science gang' because these young men want to belong somewhere," says Dr Sewell. "When it comes to boys of Caribbean origin there are two levels of underachievement.

There is a small minority that are involved in a street community, violence, guns and crime and they are the ones that hit the headlines. They do have a big effect on the community but the numbers are actually very small.

"But there is a much larger group of boys who are underachieving by getting C and D grades when they should be getting As.

"This is a much larger and more significant group and this is the group we are able to make headway with."

Dr Sewell's programme may have been a success story for 30 young men but what of the thousands of black boys across the country who are failing to achieve the grade? "We cannot capture everybody," he says. "But there are boys who are banging on our doors and are hungry to learn.

"We are not looking to replace schools, we are looking to provide added value and there is no reason that this model cannot be used for other groups of young people."

The Birmingham Mail asked for a response to Dr Sewell's comments from Tony Howell, Birmingham City Council's Director for Children, Young People and Families, but he declined to reply.

The guide every parent must read n 160+ Midland schools featured n GCSE results and education videos n Latest local and national news www.birminghammail.net/schools BIRMINGHAM TERM TIMES AUTUMN TERM 2009 Mon Nov 2 to Fri Dec 18 SPRING TERM 2010 Mon Jan 4 to Fri Feb 12 Mon Feb 22 to Thurs April 1 SUMMER TERM 2010 Mon April 19 to Fri May 28 Mon June 7 to Fri July 23 National Project Manager Salary pounds 30,000 circa plus excellent benefits Birmingham We are a national organisation, based in Birmingham that exists to promote ethnic diversity across the sport and physical activity sector. As part of our expansion we are looking for an experienced Project Manager to deliver the Age UK Fit as a Fiddle, Community Programme which is funded through the Big Lottery Fund.

The individual must be able to train and manage volunteers, have good project management experience, be highly organised, and have the ability to work flexibly and creatively in faith and community based settings.

Closing Date: 4 November 2009 Interview Date: 11 November 2009 If you have not heard from us by 9th November 2009 then unfortunately you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We welcome applications from all sectors of the community.

For further details and information on other available vacancies please access www.sportingequals.org.uk call 0121 777 1375 or e-mail [e-mail] NO AGENCIES PLEASE MAPLE HAYES SCHOOL AWARD WINNING SCHOOL FOR DYSLEXICS LICHFIELD STAFFORDSHIRE Required for January 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter TEACHER OF GCSE PHYSICS & JUNIOR SCIENCE & A PRIMARY TEACHER For years 5 to 6 with the interest to teach English and / or Mathematics to year 7 and 8 Maple Hayes Dyslexia School is internationally known for its morphological approach to literacy for children who fail with conventional phonics teaching and is a very successful DCFS approved co-educational independent school with an age range from 7-16 years for pupils with SpLD (mainly dyslexia and dysgraphia) "Pupils have positive attitudes to work; they work hard in lessons and understand that they need to do so if they are to overcome their difficulties." (OfSted) Maple Hayes salary scale is equivalent to or more than main scale Further details and an application form are available from the Headteacher, Dr Daryl Brown, Maple Hayes Dyslexia School, Abnalls Lane, Lichfield, Staffs, WS13 8BL: Tel [phone] www.dyslexia.gb.com MoreInfo Companies or education centres interested in talking to Dr Sewell about becoming involved in Generating Genius or families who would like more information can contact him at [e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

Success story: Dr Tony Sewell and his book entitled Generating Genius.