Best Madrassah Service Shortlisted Mosque 2024
The Hub Club (established in 2016) is one of many youth programmes at The Hub, Solihull. It is deeply heartening to see the buzz and happiness in our school community, spread through students, parents and teachers, reflected also in several of our student leavers who have returned to support our classes with impressive ability.
We have a bespoke program for 5-18 year-olds. Our focus is on spiritual revival, by nourishing the heart and perfecting character through transformative, practical learning. Our 200 students study Tafsīr, Duā’s and essential Fiqh. What makes us unique is our teaching of the Ghazali Children’s Programme.
Taught at an age-appropriate level, The Ghazali Children’s programme focuses on the inner aspects of Islam, teaching students how Muslims should conduct themselves; both in wider society as beacons of good manners, as well as endorsing a mindset related to self-reflection and self-correcting behaviour. Embedding these virtues into practice is demonstrated through our Duā programme, as well as our matched Parents Class each week, encouraging spiritual development of the whole family.
Learning is brought to life with stories, immersive activities including roleplays, videos, crafts and more. We recently piloted the ‘40 parables of the Qur’an,’ by Sheikh Ahmed Saad Al-Azhari using similar methods, with great success. Our dedicated teachers are mostly parents and volunteers from our community. We run several topical workshops every year with invited guests and competitions to enrich our children’s learning further.
The Hub Club has been recognised internationally as a model pilot school and was the subject of a documentary in 2019 (link below). The Hub Club was showcased at the Bradford Literature Festival, ISNA (US), the Ghazali Festival in South Africa, and in 2024 during a UK tour. The Hub Club has advised the curriculum for Ghazali children’s books, and we help spread our teaching methods and curriculum, notably by launching the subscription-based Ghazali Project online – ‘Radiant Hearts’ – in 2021 [www.radianthearts.org], receiving widespread interest. We have supported the global implementation of the project, with direct support to schools in the UK, Pakistan, Canada, and most recently an orphanage in Morocco.
In addition, Islamic studies at the Hub Club is taught in a graded course from age 5, leading to an iGCSE (Cambridge 0493), which we have taught for several years. Our A-B pass rate is consistently over 65%, providing students with an additional qualification a year before they sit their school GCSE’s. Our Post-GCSE class builds certainty of faith by addressing key theological themes for ages 16 and above, as they begin to embark on their adult life. The course, unique to the Hub Club, strives to cover the questions of contemporary and classical issues of faith.
Alongside our Islamic studies programme, we also run weekday Qur’an programmes, where we have approximately 150 students. Classes run from the Qa’ida all the way to a Hifz, supplemented by Qur’anic Arabic courses, and use mobile apps to reinforce learning and feedback to parents. Our youth provision is also complemented by our youth clubs.
