It was celebration time in London recently as 80 young students and their mothers from schools across the city attended their graduation ceremony.

The four schools present at the event, which took place at the offices of Norton Rose Fullbright, were Arnhem Wharf Primary School, Laurence Haines Primary School, Riversdale Primary School and Mayville Primary School. Mentors and teachers were also in attendance to show their support to the graduates.

Mosaic would like to thank Criterion Capital and the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery for their generous support of the primary school mentoring programme.

The outstanding young graduates and their mothers also listened to an inspirational talk from keynote speaker Shareefa Choudhury, who spoke about her dreams and aspirations when she was a similar age to the graduates how this has transpired to where she is  today.

Shareefa is a Communications Advisor for the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She has previously worked for JPMorgan Chase, Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (FAIR), and the Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH), a UK NGO which delivers faith and culturally sensitive counselling services for young British Muslims, as its first Director. Prior to joining DFID, Shareefa worked for the UK Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government.

Shareefa commented: “I’ve been involved with Mosaic for a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone today. It is very inspirational to see the positive outcomes of the primary mentoring programme and how the young girls and boys develop their self-confidence through the mentoring. The presence and involvement of the mothers was also inspiring as it helps the girls to realise that the women who raise them are champions in their own individual ways.

“The Mosaic primary school mentoring programme is so effective because it brings mothers and daughters together. It’s never too late to achieve your dreams and goals and Mosaic has really helped deliver that message to all the participants. The results speak for themselves.”

Many of the students performed poems they had written on the day, including 9-year old Aneesa from Rivesdale Academy:

“Mosaic turns my frown upside down,
Mosaic is so cool, thank you for coming to our school,
Mosaic is so neat and so very sweet,
Mosaic is so cool, thank you for coming to our school,
Mosaic makes me happy and many mentors are pretty,
Mosaic is so cool, thank you for coming to our school,
Mosaic I love it, it keeps my brains fit,
Mosaic is so cool, thank you for coming to our school.”

Mosaic mentor and speaker on the day, Rumana Sheikh from EY added: “Mentoring was an amazing experience, not just for the girls but for me too!  Today I did my first speech in front of an audience, something I’ve never done before and probably would never have had done if I had not been a mentor.  The rewarding part of being a mentor was seeing the girls confidence grow week by week, and the surprising part was that I actually benefited from the experience as much as the girls did!”