Community

Cohesion - Primary

A pack for whole primary school approaches from policy to practice

Community Cohesion Pack – WholeSchool policy to practice

Rationale

As The 2006 Education Act placed a duty upon schools to promote community cohesion, it has become part of OFSTED inspections since September 2008. There is overwhelming evidence that schools embracing collaboration with a variety of partners, including their local communities, are more likely to raise achievement and to build social capital and community cohesion The recent publication 21st Century schools and the recommendations of the National Council for Educational Excellence make it clear that for schools, working in partnership has never been more important

Jane Richmond, The Lancashire Teacher Adviser for Cohesion and Diversity has developed this pack to support schools in setting a context for community cohesion, to provide links to community cohesion policy guidance and an audit tool to assist schools in recognising and celebrating the work they are currently doing in school and to highlight areas where there needs to be development. There is a range of agencies and LCC teams who can provide related support in these issues and their contacts are at the end of the pack.

It will provide a framework for head teachers and Senior Leadership teams to have clear knowledge and understanding of the progress they have made towards fulfilling their duty to promote community cohesion and fill in the Schools Self Evaluation Form for OFSTED

Contents of pack

Context of Community Cohesion:

  • Definition of Community Cohesion
  • Government agendas relating to Community Cohesion
  • Issues relating to Community Cohesion
  • Lancashire's Key Priorities for Community Cohesion
  • Links to Lancashire County Council community cohesion policy guidance for schools
  • Audit tool templates for each of the three community cohesion strands - which include some examples of what community cohesion might look like in practice. It is provided as an aide memoir in auditing your school’s work towards community cohesion and is not definitive. This has been filled in to provide examples as starting parts for discussions. Please feel free to add any thing else you are doing in school to keep as evidence. (Or remove anything you feel is not relevant to your situation).
  • Action plan pro-forma and exemplar
  • Where to go for support for community cohesion

DEFINITION - What is community cohesion?

By community cohesion, we mean working towards a society in which there is a common vision and sense of belonging by all communities; a society in which the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued; a society in which similar life opportunities are available to all; and a society in which strong and positive relationships exist and continue to be developed in the workplace, in schools and in the wider community[1].

SCHOOLS DUTY TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY COHESION

Teaching, learning and curriculum– helping children and young people to learn to understand others, to value diversity whilst also promoting shared values, to promote awareness of human rights and to apply and defend them, and to develop the skills of participation and responsible action – for example through the new ‘Identity and Diversity: living together in the UK’ strand within citizenship education.

  • Equity and excellence – to ensure equal opportunities for all to succeed at the highest level possible, striving to remove barriers to access and participation in learning and wider activities and working to eliminate variations in outcomes for different groups.
  • Engagement and extended services – to provide reasonable means for children, young people, their friends and families to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relations: including links with different schools and communities and the provision of extended services with opportunities for pupils, families and the wider community to take part in activities and receive services which build positive interaction and achievement for all groups.

FOUR STRATEGIC AIMS

  1. Close the attainment gap.
  2. Develop common values of citizenship based on dialogue, mutual respect and acceptance of diversity.
  3. Contribute to building good community relations and challenge all types of discrimination and inequality.
  4. Remove the barriers to access, participation, progression, attainment and achievement

ETHOS AND PROCESS

It is essential that schools are clear about their own definition of community cohesion that staff have discussed and come to a consensus of what it means to them before they try to develop strategies for delivery. Only then will the school's ethos be apparent in the learning environment, support school through this process.

GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES and VISIONS

21st Century schools "providing a range of activities and opportunities to enrich the lives of children, families and the wider community; and contributing to community objectives such as local cohesion, sustainability and regeneration

Sustainable partnerships

Planning and evaluating effective community programmes

Working with children's services and other agencies

The new guidance for designation and re-designation

Finding sources of additional funding for community programmes

Healthy schools enhancement model

LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL'S KEY PRIORITIES FOR COMMUNITY COHESION

Lancashire County Council's definition of community cohesion is" Community cohesion in Lancashire means people working together and respecting differences in our society"

Overarching principles include:

•Migrant workers

•Countering myths and misunderstanding

•Creating a sense of community and belonging

The Lancashire Community Cohesion Partnership has been established to ensure that cohesion issues are dealt with promptly and sensibly by the local authority and district and unitary councils. The partnership is currently developing a Cohesion and Integration Strategy for that has also had input from key services within the Council and the Directorate of Children and Young People. The following points have been prioritised in the action plan.

  1. Strengthened leadership on community cohesion – to understand the issues and needs of all sections of the population and be able to represent all the population, to deal with competing community priorities and divisions and distrust.
  2. Sharing practice and joint working on practical projects where there is added value. For example, community engagement.
  3. Up to date information on: -The make up of the population and the changes in it -Levels of and reasons for divisions and distrust -The needs of people newly arrived to Lancashire
  4. Consistent and common messages including a media and promotional strategy
  5. Community cohesion outcomes, action and targets are in all key Lancashire strategies and plans –mainstreaming.
  6. A common understanding of existing arrangements for planning for and responding to major incidents and emergencies impacting upon community cohesion including the recovery and restoration to normality at a multi-agency countywide.

In terms of community cohesion what are some of the issues?

Preventing Violent Extremism agenda

Ethnic Minority groups and EAL students – raising attainment and achievement

Intergenerational issues particularly between the elderly and youths

Gangs and youth/teenage

Bridging the divide between Urban/rural

Deprivation

Health

Class

Extended schools

Unemployment, worklessness and low expectations and aspirations

EQUALITIES LEGISLATION

There had been until recently three pieces of Equality legislation in place: Gender, Race and Disability

On October 2010 three more strands became legislation – Age, Faith and sexual orientation (Lesbian Gay and Bi-sexual) under the Equality Act – it is likely that schools will now have to have a Single Equality Policy

Also taking into account the socio-economics of the community the school serves. It is advisable to consider and include these Equalities elements when thinking about community cohesion and the audit pro-forma section of document particularly

HEALTHY SCHOOLS ENHANCEMENT MODEL

To achieve National Healthy School Status and maintain it by completing the annual review, schools are required to show how they meet the needs of the school community. The healthy schools enhancement model helps schools to improve the universal and targeted outcomes for the school community.

This document has been cross referenced to Lancashire's Healthy Schools programme to ensure that schools have made the links between the two documents and so that schools can use evidence from one document to inform the other, to assist in alleviating workloads (ref key e.g. LHSP 8.3)The Lancashire Healthy Schools Programme (LHSP) references show the links between the approaches outlined in this audit and the LHSP Quality Standards which provide a framework to guide practice to improve the universal and targeted outcomes for children and young people.

OFSTED – The revised Framework 2009 - Key Features "Community Cohesion"

School Self-Evaluation and the SEF (schools self evaluation form) will remain central to the new arrangements and should include

  • WHAT are you doing in school towards fulfilling your duties towards community cohesion?
  • WHERE can that evidence be found/seen?
  • Evidence of the IMPACT of this work on the whole school, individual classes and most significantly on the learners?

Inspectors should evaluate:

  • The extent to which a school has developed an understanding of the religious, ethnic and socio-economic characteristics of its community in a local, national and global context
  • The extent to which the school has taken appropriate set of planned actions based on an analysis of its context and is evaluating the impact on its work
  • The extent to which the school's actions have a positive impact on community cohesion within the school and beyond

Inspectors should take account of:

  • The quality of the school's analysis of its context
  • The extent to which leaders and managers have placed due emphasis on each of the three strands of religion, ethnicity and socio-economic dimension in shaping the school's response to it's analysis
  • The extent to which the school has taken appropriate actions to contribute to community cohesion within the school and beyond
  • The quality, and the use made, of the school's evaluation of it's work across the three strands
  • Evidence of the impact of the school's work on the outcomes, for instance in the quality of the pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
  • Evidence of the impact of the school's work in the local community

SEF REFERENCES

This document has been cross-referenced to the SEF to make it easier for you to complete

PLEASE NOTE that this entire document can be précised and related to SECTION A4.8 of your SEF – The effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion – this is not referenced on audit tool as it covers all aspects!

Early years practice is now a separate and key component so ensure that this is fully covered in SECTION A5.4 and key workers for children are established as soon as possible and they contribute to your knowledge to complete your SEF

Lancashire County Council's Community Cohesion Policy Guidance

1.About the policy (ref LHSP 8.3 9.3 10.3)

In this section schools can identify the key personnel and specify the review procedure. There is also a policy review proforma designed to be attached to the policy included with the support materials.

This policy aims to show how weat [name]school will meet ourduty to promote community cohesion.

It was prepared by [personnel] and ratified by the governors on [date]. It will be reviewed on [date].

Review of the policy will generate points for action, which will be incorporated into our SDP/Action Plan

2.Our school context.

In this section, insert a description of the school and the communities it serves along with a brief outline of the main challenges facing the school with respect to community cohesion. This will provide a context for the definition, which follows.

3. Definition

In this section schools should define community cohesion for themselves specific to their local context as well as incorporating an awareness of the wider issues. Materials are included with this guidance to support this.

We understand community cohesion to mean / we understand a cohesive community to be one in which......

4. School Aims

In this section schools need to consider their local context and agree on some aims that are relevant to their situation. The school vision or mission statement can also be included here.

Below are listed some statements that are identified by DCSF as being part of schools' role in promoting community cohesion. These could provide a starting point for discussion but they are too broad and generic to be helpful in defining a policy for a specific school's circumstances.

In order to prepare all our pupils for living and working in a diverse and cohesive societyschools should work with their pupils to:

  • Encourage the development of a secure sense of their own identity, both as individuals and as part of the local, national and global communities of which they are a part;
  • Encourage open and positive attitudes towards diversity and the development of the skills, understanding and confidence to challenge prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping;
  • Support the development of the skills, knowledge, understanding and motivation they need to become active citizens who recognise their rights and responsibilities;
  • Ensure equality of opportunity, remove barriers to access and eliminate discrimination and harassment;
  • Strive to ensure they receive a broad and balanced education and succeed in reaching their individual potential at the highest level possible;
  • Provide opportunities for positive interaction and the building of relationships with people from a range of different backgrounds both in our local community and the wider society.

5.Roles and responsibilities.

In this section schools should consider their own systems and processes and define roles and responsibilities for the carrying out of this policy. Some examples are given below.

The governors will ensure that:

•The school complies with its duty to promote community cohesion;

The head teacher will ensure that:

  • This policy is readily available and that governors, staff, pupils and their parents know about it and are updated on its progress;
  • All staff understand their responsibilities and receive appropriate support and training if necessary;
  • This policy and its procedures are followed. (LHSP 8.3 and 10.3)

All staff will ensure that:

  • They have read the policy and understand their responsibilities;
  • They promote equality of opportunity and positive attitudes to diversity in accordance with this policy and other relevant policies.

A named member of staff and/or governor will ensure that:

  • Practice in school supports the aims and procedures outlined in this policy;
  • They undertake appropriate training in order to support colleagues in carrying out their responsibilities;
  • Staff, governors, parents and pupils are kept up to date with relevant information;
  • Monitoring and assessment of the impact of this policy takes place.

6. Policy into practice

In this section schools canspecify howthey aregoing to meet the duty in each of the three areas. The outcomes identified here should link back to the aims identified earlier. Some aspects will be covered through other policies, which can be referenced here.

Examples are given butschools will need to be more specific and refer totheir own systems and practices.

Teaching, learning and curriculum (LHSP 8.4b) c), 9.4 10.4b) c) 11.4b) 12.4b)

How will you:

  • Value diversity
  • Promote shared values
  • Promote awareness of human rights, how to apply and defend them
  • Develop skills of participation and responsible action
  • Integrate opportunities to discuss relevant issues across the curriculum
  • Monitor and assess the impact of teaching, learning and the curriculum?

E.g.

All subject areas will be reviewed annually to ensure the curriculum promotes awareness of diversity, shared values, exploration of identity and human rights where appropriate and this will be monitored by curriculum coordinators/heads of department

Teaching methods will, where appropriate, encourage discussion, questioning and reflection – Circle Time, Philosophy for Children, collaborative learning etc. and this will be monitored through planning documentation.

Staff will receive relevant training and support to ensure they feel confident in promoting discussions around sensitive issues.

Subject leaders will monitor teaching, learning, resources and the curriculum in their subject area to ensure they meet the aims of this policy.

Equity and excellence (LHSP 8.6a) 9.4b) 10.6 11.6 12.6 8.5d) 9.6)

How will you:

  • Ensure equal opportunities for all pupils?
  • Remove barriers to access and participation in learning and wider activities?
  • Collect and interrogate hard and soft data to identify areas of concern?
  • Work to eliminate variations in outcomes for different groups?

You could refer to other policies here e.g. EAL, Equality, and Equal Opportunities

E.g.

In line with our Equalities Policy, data will be rigorously analysed to identify pupils at risk of underachieving and appropriate intervention strategies will be utilised.

We will work collaboratively with our pupils/students to form focus groups to address barriers to achievement.

Engagement and Extended Services (LHSP - 8.1g) 9.1f) 10.1j) 11.1f) 12.1f)

How will you:

  • Provide opportunities for children, young people, their friends and families to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relationships?
  • Link with different schools and different communities?
  • Provide extended services to the community?
  • Link with local organisations?
  • Provide opportunities for pupils and their families to take part in activities and receive services, which build positive interaction?

E.g.