the Aylesbury Saturday school was set up by the local
Polish community as a means of holding on to their tra-
ditions and language. “There was a real sense of
longing,” Michalina Skierkowska , head of the school,
tells me. “People missed their family, the culture, the
food and the reality of being in Poland.” Since then,
hundreds of children, from reception age to GCSE, have
passed through the school , which is funded by the
P o l i s h g o v e r n m e n t a n d m e m b e r s h i p f e e s , s u p p l e m e n t e d
by fundraising activities.
“ Education through the Polish school isn’t just
about broadening your horizons and learning the
l anguage and culture and everything
else – it gives you that sense of security
that, any time you want to go back, theThe Guardian | 30.04.22 | SATURDAY | 35▼ SAINT STANISŁAW
KOSTKA POLISH
SCHOOL, ABERDEEN
Aurelia, 10, was born in
Aberdeen and has been at
the school for a year: ‘I’m
learning a lot about our
literature and traditions.
We learn through fun – I
like to dress up and take
part in competitions’Supplementary schools are common to a variety
of cultures. Photographer Craig Easton has spent s everal
months travelling across the UK, documenting
s tudents at Saturday and Sunday schools, ranging
from a J apanese school in Livingston to a school in
B uckinghamshire for children of African heritage.
“There are hundreds of these schools , full of
B ritish kids who want to celebrate their family herit-
age and c ulture,” he says. “Some of the schools are faith
schools, and others are about ‘this is the country you
came from, and this is the political background to
the place’. ”
Easton, an award-winning photographer, has a
thread running through his work: the idea that it is
p ossible to be British and still hold on to one’s heritage.
H e i s k e e n f o r h i s i m a g e s t o b e a n a n t i d o t e t o t h e r i s e o f
rightwing nationalism. “Photography and journalism
are so good at shining light into dark corners, but I
wanted to turn that around and say how brilliant some
things are across the country. These are kids with thick
Mancunian or Scottish accents celebrating their
J apanese culture or their Polish culture. They are all
deeply connected to the culture or faith, while also
being deeply British.”
Easton said he was received well by all the schools.
“The children had enormous pride in their cultural
identity, and it was celebratory. That’s what I loved
about it.” One of the groups he visited was a Polish school
in Aylesbury. After Poland joined the EU in 2004 , the
c ommunity in the UK began to grow. Four years later,