Citizenship: Computers and cooking at the International Justice Club

Many schools find themselves in the thick of one of the biggest political issues of our time – immigration and asylum. Forest Gate Community School, in east London, has a large and fluctuating number of students who are refugees or asylum-seekers, and the school is determined to support these more vulnerable members of the community.

For the past four years, it has run the International Justice Club, after school, which enables students to hang out, do sport, listen to music, use the computers and get help with homework. "We do a lot of cooking," says head of English as an additional language, Miriam Scharf. "When they're cooking, even the shyest of them can manage to say something in English." Club members and other students have also got involved with protests to the Home Office about the treatment of asylum-seekers, and anti-deportation campaigns.

Miriam Scharf set up the club because she could see the need for such children to have a place that was their own. A £3,000 sponsorship from Barclays New Futures funded the club for two years, but it is now looking for further support. The club has a youth worker, paid for by a local youth club, but teachers give their time for free, and there is only enough money in the kitty for a few refreshments and a half-term outing.

Last year it managed to take some members to the New Forest for four days. "They just couldn't believe it!" says Scharf. "So this term we're very popular. They keep running up to me saying, Miss, where's the club?"