1O DOWNING STREET
30 April 2014
Foundation set up to honour first British Muslim head teacher wins Prime Minister’s award
A foundation set up in honour of, Nawazish Bokhari, an inspirational headteacher and campaigner who was the first British Muslim to run a UK secondary school is the latest winner of a Prime Minister’s Big Society Award.
Today Naz Legacy Foundation launches their new Diversity Programme at the National Portrait Gallery. School children from various communities, will visit the gallery for the first time and will look in to the lives and experiences of positive role models from diverse backgrounds that have made an impact in the UK.
The Naz Legacy Foundation, founded by Nawazish’s children Hina and Harris Bokhari, aims to continue his work inspiring young people to achieve their potential, promoting excellence in education and programmes spearheading positive integration into society.
The foundation is made up of a group of educationalists; philanthropists and community leaders and has raised over £1 million for educational projects benefitting some of the most deprived communities in the UK, including mentoring over 2000 young people in over 100 schools and institutions across of length and breadth of the UK.
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
“Naz Legacy foundation is doing fantastic work to ensure young people across the UK are able to fulfil their potential.
“The National Portrait Gallery programme launching today is yet another example of how the foundation is securing the legacy of an inspirational teacher, Nawazish Bokhari. I’m delighted to be recognising the hard work of everyone at the foundation with this Big Society Award.”
Hina Bokhari and Harris Bokhari, Founders, Naz Legacy Foundation said:
“We are delighted to have won a Big Society Award. Our father was a champion for young people. He believed that every young person – no matter what their background or circumstances – deserved the best quality of education available. We are honoured that his legacy continues in the work of the foundation and we are reminded of this advice to us as children that ‘it is not what you do in your lifetime that really matters, it is the legacy you leave behind for the next generations to follow that makes a difference.”
Notes to Editors
Images available upon request.
The Foundation supports the work of various educational charities including HRH The Prince of Wales’ Mosaic as well promoting the great work done by The Teaching Award and The College of Teachers.
Honorary Fellowship of Education
The Foundation established this honour in memory of the late Naz Bokhari OBE. The first Muslim head teacher in the UK. Naz embodied all the best values of the teaching professional. He was a great educationalist who was also a Muslim. Each year the Foundation awards someone who demonstrates outstanding contribution to the field of education.
Naz Bokhari Award
The foundation has also established the Naz Bokhari Award, which has encouraged local businesses to raise funds to support students who have achieved a university place despite overcoming adversity, supporting them with work experiences, placements and mentoring.
Through creating the Naz Bokhari Award, the Foundation has encouraged locally businesses to raise funds to support deserving students who have achieved a university place despite adversity. They also support them by providing work experience, placements and mentoring.
For Media Enquiries please contact: Harris Bokhari, [email protected] or 07736287047
On the Big Society Awards
The Big Society Awards were set up by the Prime Minister in November 2010. The aim is to acknowledge individuals and organisations across the UK that demonstrates the Big Society in their work or activities. In so doing, the aim is also to galvanise others to follow.
The award focuses upon three specific areas:
Outstanding Contribution to Community
– People, projects and organisations that enable communities to drive change themselves
– Projects and organisations that allow the community to identify solutions
– People, projects and organisations that inspire others to contribute to their community
Improving Lives and Society through Innovation, Collaboration and New Partnerships
– People and organisations taking new approaches to public services
– Successful collaboration and partnerships between public, private and voluntary sector – working together to benefit communities
Engaging in Social Action
– People, projects and organisations taking action in their community
– Working together for social change (e.g. through creating groups, campaigns, movements)
– Generosity of time, money, skills and other resources – in support of social action
Launching the awards, the Prime Minister said:
“There are some amazing projects and remarkable voluntary work going on in towns and cities up and down the country, by all kinds of organisations from large enterprises to tiny grassroots schemes and inspirational individuals.
“These awards are a chance to pay tribute to those making a valuable contribution to their community, the real champions of the Big Society, but perhaps more importantly, I hope they will motivate many others to take action, get involved and drive change in their area.”
Nominations come in from the general public after which there follows a process of scoring and short-listing by civil servants and a further short-listing by a Panel of Ministers and independent external experts. This Panel makes recommendations to the Prime Minister who makes the final decisions about who to make the award to. Twelve winners are decided each quarter meeting and then announced once a week throughout the year.
Over 100 winners have been announced to date. Previous Big Society Award Winners include:
Mosaic
Founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2007, Mosaics mentoring programmes create opportunities for young people growing up in our most deprived communities
Digi Steps
A social enterprise run by school pupils who wanted to share their internet and computer skills with senior citizens in their area
UBS
Volunteers work weekly with students to improve literacy and numeracy skills and is a virtual trading project. UBS Pride Network engaged Stonewall to work with one hundred and eighty year seven students on homophobic bullying which was supported by eight UBS volunteers. UBS also focus on supporting the Bridge specialisms of Maths and Music – through innovative partnerships with QMUL and the LSO, and on preparing the students for the world of work or further education.
For more information: www.bigsocietyawards.org
