Mark Walker Date: 10^th February 2010

Email: [FOI #26853 email] Our ref: FOI.10.6151

Dear Mr Walker

Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your recent Freedom of Information Request and can confirm the following information: -

1) What evidence is there that schools' equal opportunity policies are effective in

combating racism?

All schools have explicit statements in their policies that promote anti racism and embrace multiculturalism. Children and parents know that racism will always be challenged and all incidents logged. It is the objective of schools to educate against racism so that incidents do not occur.

2) What are schools in your area doing to promote racial equality and promote

community cohesion? Examples of measures deemed to be good practice and

recognised as being successful would be useful.

All schools are under a duty to promote racial equality under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. There are many ways that they do this. The three main areas are by auditing and updating the curriculum, by holding special events to celebrate cultural events and by monitoring by ethnicity all aspects of school achievement and participation. Many schools work with the Council in collaboration with organisations such as Show Racism the Red Card. Some secondary schools suspend the curriculum for the day for special awareness sessions for example about refugees and asylum seekers or Holocaust Memorial Day when visiting speakers and artists are invited.

3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed above have been

effective (if this has not already been done)?

Schools follow up explicit anti racist or multicultural events by sounding out the opinions of children by questionnaires and surveys. Outside organisations have produced similar surveys after their work in schools. Show Racism the Red Card produce statistics from surveys that they do after their school programmes that demonstrate their effectiveness in educating children against racism.

4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the teaching profession

or protect children and young people?

South Tyneside is always ready to offer advice to schools about community cohesion and racial equality and ultimately the schools' duty to the promotion of these strands are judged against the new Ofsted inspection framework.

I hope this information is of assistance to you.

Copyright procedure

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use this information for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and news reporting. Any other re-use of this information, for example commercial publication requires the permission of the Council as the Copyright holder. All re-use requests will be treated under the Re-Use of Public Information Regulation 2006.

Appeal procedure

Should you wish to appeal against the decision made about this matter you can write to the Records Management Team Leader to have your case reviewed by our Internal Review Panel. This should be sent to us within four weeks and must clearly state the reasons for your appeal and your FOI reference number. The Records Management Team address is as follows: Records Management Team, Town Hall and Civic Buildings, Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RL.

Information Commissioner's office (ICO)

Should you remain dissatisfied, you can appeal against our final decision by writing to the Information Commissioner to have your case independently reviewed.

The Information Commissioner is the Government's Independent Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Please do note that the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the Council's internal appeal procedures. All correspondence to the ICO must quote the Council's reference number and your reasons for your appeal.

The ICO's contact details are as follows: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. More information can be found on the ICO's website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

If you have any further queries about this matter then please do not hesitate to contact me on the number below:

Yours sincerely

Peter Cutts

Head of Social Inclusion and Achievement

Tel: 0191 424 7697

Email: [email address]