Samia, Amina, Sanam and Arezo* live in Bristol with their parents, brothers, and sister. Originally from Afghanistan, they have been in the UK for nearly one year. At home they speak Pashto but between them they also speak Dari, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, and English!

The sisters started school in the UK in Autumn 2024. Before this, they had been out of school for four years after their education in Afghanistan was interrupted. The youngest of the four girls, Arezo had only ever briefly attended nursery before entering Year 4 in the UK.

At first, it was hard. Their new school was big with a lot of different classes and rooms and unfamiliar things, including computers for the secondary school students. The girls' parents saw that they were struggling and unhappy the first few weeks, but over time, they began adjusting and became more confident.

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Jacari 

The girls and their parents shared that starting Jacari was a big help with this adjustment. At her primary school, Arezo was paired with a university volunteer through Jacari community tutoring while her older sisters in secondary school were paired with Jacari peer tutors from their school's sixth form.

In their Jacari sessions, the girls enjoyed playing games, learning new things, and reading books with their tutors. They also liked the trips! They spoke about how Jacari helped them to improve their speaking and become more confident. The girls found their tutors to be kind, helpful, and fun. 

Arezo was paired with Sara, a university student with previous experience of EAL tutoring at her school. Asya told us she liked playing games in her Jacari session. Her favourite game was Uno!

Sara said that “tutoring Arezo has been such a wonderful experience. She was always so energetic and eager to learn... Arezo was always very confident and chatty in our sessions and she made great progress in her English... She would tell me about her lessons in school and always spoke about how much she enjoyed learning too!”

The EAL lead at Arezo’s school shared that “Arezo’s confidence has really grown since she started Jacari, she is speaking a lot more English and she has made friends in her class… Jacari sessions were a chance for her to build her vocabulary quickly through language games at her level in a really supportive environment.”

Peer Tutoring

The girls with peer tutors found it useful to ask questions and get support with their homework. It also helped them build their confidence to ask their teachers and classmates questions during school. 

Their EAL support teacher told us that “having a Jacari tutor was a really important part of the support they received this year. They were able to get one-to-one language support and specifically asked their tutors for the help they needed”. She also noted the impact on their confidence and their engagement as they “could be seen smiling and laughing with their tutors and peers during the sessions”.

One of the Amina’s tutors, Beth* spoke about how great it was to work with Amina and to watch her skills and confidence develop as their sessions progressed and as they got comfortable together. Beth also migrated to the UK and started school in Year 4. As a Jacari peer tutor, Beth was able to draw from her own experiences when working with Amina.

Along with developing her tutoring skills, she also shared that she admired Amina’s patience and that working with her helped Beth develop her own patience.

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*names have all been changed for anonymity