Not only does 2021 see Jacari mark its 65th anniversary, but this year we also celebrate five years since our expansion to Bristol, and what a busy five years it’s been!
Keen to replicate the tutoring programme that was proving so successful in Oxford, in 2015 Jacari’s trustee board started to look at which cities would provide a good place for Jacari’s second home. Due to its diverse population and active student volunteering community, they decided on Bristol!
During the 2015/16 academic year, networks were forged, a partnership with City Academy secondary school was established, which referred Jacari Bristol’s first pupils, 25 volunteers were recruited and a student committee was formed. And so, in September 2016, with our first part-time Coordinator in place, Jacari Bristol was officially born!
From these early days, Jacari Bristol has grown steadily each year, to the point where we now have partnerships with six local schools, and at our high point before the pandemic, we were supporting over 125 pupils across the city. We are looking forward to getting back to these numbers, and hopefully more, over the next few years, expanding our reach to meet the undeniable need found within the city. In 2019 there were approximately 12,000 children with English as an additional language in Bristol, and in some of our partner schools, the proportion of EAL children is as much as 82% of the school population.
During the pandemic we’ve been working hard to meet this need, and support the amazing children and young people who are referred to us. We couldn’t do this work without our fantastic team of volunteers, including our student committees and local trustees, as well as the superb teachers we work with at our partner schools, and the generous support of our donors and funders. With this brilliant community established in just five years, we’re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in the next five!