Promoting Racial Equality Policy
Preamble (Reference has been made to the Head’s Legal Guide)
Racial Discrimination
A governing body has a responsibility, under the Race Relations Act 1976, to play its part in ensuring that the school does not discriminate on racial grounds against pupils having access to ‘any benefits, facilities or service, or by refusing or deliberately omitting to afford’ such pupils access to the facilities.
DfEE Circular 10/99, Social Inclusion: Pupil Support, to which Heads, governing bodies and LEAs must ‘have regard’, urges schools to make clear in their behaviour policies that racial harassment will not be tolerated. They should state how staff and pupils should deal with it and record all racist incidents. Governing bodies should inform their LEAs each year of the pattern and frequency of any racial incidents. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report defined a racist incident as ‘any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person’. (The Governors would wish, for the purpose of this policy, to modify this definition by inserting the word ‘reasonably’ between ‘is’ and perceived’).
Promotion of Race Equality
An amendment, in 2000, to the Race relations Act 1976 strengthened its provisions to require a governing body (and other public authorities) to take positive steps to eliminate racial discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and promote good relations between persons of different racial groups. The Race Relations Act 1976 (Statutory Duties) Order 2001 (S1 2001 No. 3458) supported by a statutory code of practice, to which governing bodies must have regard (see below), required governing bodies to have drawn up plans for meeting these responsibilities by 31 May 2003. The duty will especially impinge on a governing body’s duties with respect to employment, admissions, exclusions, resource allocation and the implementation of the National Curriculum. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) advises that all three parts of the duty must be met and the relationship of one part with another must be considered. It cites an example that a recruitment policy might promote equal opportunities but, if badly introduced, could actually damage race relations.
Specific Duties
A governing body must check that their policies are relevant to and promote racial equality. It will need to assess the particular needs of different racial groups to see how far they are affected by the policies. A governing body must, following appropriate consultation, write (by 31 May 2002) and maintain a policy for promoting racial equality and monitor the operation of it by reference to its impact upon pupils, parents and staff and in particular on the attainment levels of the pupils.
Information on a governing body’s duties under the amendment to the 1976 Act may be found in the CRE’s web site at
Code of Practice
The consultation draft of the CRE’s Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality explains that, provided it is clearly identifiable and available, a race equality policy may be combined with another policy, eg. An equal opportunities policy. The code states that a good policy will set out the school’s commitment to eliminate racial discrimination, promote equality of opportunity, promote good race relations and explain what this means for everyone concerned with the school. It will enable each person to know what is expected of him or her by defining roles and responsibilities, explain how the effectiveness of the policy will be monitored and outline what will be done if the policy is not followed. The main areas which the code identifies as being relevant to promoting race equality are:
-the care of pupils, their assessment, achievements and progress, their discipline and exclusions, their admission to the school and procedures for their transfer
-staff recruitment and career development
-the values of the school, its curriculum, teaching and learning
-membership of the governing body
Assessing and monitoring the policy
The legislation requires a school to assess and monitor the impact of the policy it draws up. It suggests that a school should ask if;
-it helps every pupil achieve as much as he or she can and whether there is support for those who are under achieving
-there are groups of pupils who are not achieving their potential and, if so, why
-its policies are having an inverse impact on pupils, staff or parents from some racial groups
-there are any differences of treatment of some groups and, if so, can they be justified
-it has strategies for raising standards
-racism is prevented, racial harmony and equality of opportunity promoted and whether pupils are being prepared for life in a multi-ethnic society.
-existing policies require alteration in the light of the race equality policy
-the policy leads to effective and appropriate action
To monitor the policy, the code avers that school should collect information. It suggests that this would include data on pupils’ performance and progress by racial group, information gained from monitoring issues other than those mentioned above, eg. Community and parental involvement and the support offered, the conducting of specific surveys, speaking to pupils, parents and staff to find out their perception of their needs and checking to see if there are any trends.
Such monitoring will enable schools to identify any differences between pupils from different racial groups and help to find explanations for them. It will facilitate the review policy’s targets, help to decide what aspects of the policy needs to be changed and if any further action needs to be taken.
Specific Context of St. Francis Xavier’s College
The ethnicity of the student population of the College is recorded each year in the Plasc return.
Policy Statement
Existing policies already contain much that is relevant. Reference should be made to the stated Aims of the College, the Governors’ Equal Opportunities Policy, the (student) Codes of Conduct, the College’s policy of Bullying, the section on ‘Pastoral care’ in the Prospectus, and the sections on ‘Sanctions’ and ‘Exclusion’ in the Staff Manual. The Governors believe that, with the modifications to policy and practice listed below, the College will provide an environment in which the rights of individuals will be respected, and, with a wider view, racial harmony will be fostered.
In the light of our Catholic tradition and having regard to legal requirements and the multi-ethnic nature of our student population and the community the College serves, the Governors endorse the following measures to promote racial equality in the College:
(1)Heads of Departments should ensure that they and departmental staff are aware of this policy and of the College’s Equal Opportunities Policy. They should monitor the effectiveness of these policies with regard to the work of their departments.
Heads of Departments should ensure that racial issues are addressed, as and when appropriate, in ways which seek to raise student’s awareness of the issues and the harm done by stereotyping.
In particular, Heads of departments should actively monitor the academic performance of minority ethnic groups to ensure that underachievement does not arise from inappropriate assumptions, expectations or course material. The tracking system used in the College should be used to monitor progress against prior attainment and a brief statement, based on this evidence, should be included in departmental annual reports to Governors. The Governors see this as important in order to safeguard the interests of ethnic minority groups precisely because the overwhelming majority of the school community, students, staff and governors, derive from one ethnic group.
(2)The Coordinator of the College’s Citizenship Programme should ensure that racial issues are addressed in the way envisaged by the published programme of study.
(3)Co-ordinators of Learning should ensure that they keep careful records of racist pupil misbehaviour not only in the relevant pupil files but in a dedicated file. All such misbehaviour should be reported to the relevant deputy headteacher who will decide whether or not pupil exclusion should be recommended to the headmaster. (It remains open, of course, for any member of staff to report serious misbehaviour directly to the headmaster).
Co-ordinators of Learning should also ensure that students complete the termly ‘bullying’ survey. Any misbehaviour revealed by this which is of a ‘racist’ nature should be dealt with appropriately (if not already dealt with) and recorded in the manner described above.
(4)The Governors accept their responsibility as an ‘equal opportunities employer’ already stated in their Equal Opportunities Policy.
The Governors believe that their admissions policy gives rise to no racial prejudice.
The Governors believe that the published Code of Conduct gives sufficient general guidance on acceptable standards of student dress and conduct. They look to the headmaster and teaching staff to ensure that sanctions are applied in the case of misconduct in accordance with the principles stated in the Staff Manual (specific reference may be made to the sections on ‘Sanctions’ and ‘Exclusions’). A record of the ethnicity of excluded students should be included in the general register of exclusions.
The Headteacher will report on Racial Equality at each full governors meeting.
(5) Details of incidents of racist pupil misbehaviour will be forwarded to Children’s Services following their published procedure.
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