For the past two years we have run a scheme to recruit unemployed men from black and ethnic minority backgrounds into roles as teaching assistants at Islington’s primary schools.

The scheme had a double purpose. First, we wanted to improve the results of black pupils. In 2004, only half of our African-Caribbean boys reached the expected standard in English and maths by the end of primary school. We felt that having positive male role models in the classroom would help them. Secondly, we had significant unemployment in the borough. The figures showed that it was highest among black men. We saw this scheme as a way of addressing two problems at once.

The starting point was a training programme that included ten hours a week volunteering in a classroom. All adults applying to work with young people are required to satisfy Criminal Records Bureau checks. In certain cases, these revealed evidence of past minor misdemeanours, but this did not, in itself, mean automatic exclusion from the programme. Clearly, potential applicants who had lied about their past, or who had been involved in acts of violence, were not permitted to join the programme.

We felt, however, that it was important to recognise and emphasise the fact that people who had got off to a less-than-positive start as young adults would still have the opportunity to turn their lives around. Many of the men who were recruited grew up in London when being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time could result in arrest, even for the most minor of indiscretions.

However, they had since proved over many years that they were now law-abiding members of the community. Interestingly, many of the successful applicants, whose average age is 36, had turned their lives around when they became parents and, often, sole carers.

All the head teachers involved knew about the participants’ backgrounds and, as with any other school visitor, they were supervised at all times.

The training scheme was intensive, but about three quarters of the participants finished it. The same proportion of men have now started working as teaching assistants. Several have expressed interest in training as teachers.

We are very proud of our latest test results, which showed that more than three quarters of our African-Caribbean boys made the grade in English and maths; this is in line with the national average. This scheme is not the only factor in that improvement – Islington council has a number of initiatives in this area – but I am confident that it played an important part.

The programme was funded by European money routed through the London Development Agency. That grant has finished but I am confident that someone will want to fund the scheme because they can see that it works.

We may also change the emphasis a little in the future. Recent research suggested that it is now white working-class boys who are falling behind, so we could look at adapting the programme to encourage more white working-class men to work in classrooms.

— Graham Smith is writing in a personal capacity. He works for Cambridge Education, which provides education services for the London Borough of Islington

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