BNP Teachers

The City of London acknowledges receipt of your request.

City of London
[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Dear Mr Walker

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Following receipt of your request for information on 3 December, and our
acknowledgement of the same date, the City of London (CoL) responds as
follows.

Please note that the City of London (the "Square Mile") is in an unusual
position in that it has a resident population of only around 8,000 people
and maintains only one school in its capacity as Local Education
Authority, namely the Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School, a
voluntary aided school, which is oversubscribed. Please see the
following link for further details:
[1]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporati...

Please note that the school is a separate authority to the CoL for the
purposes of compliance with the FOIA.

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

The school states clearly in its code of conduct, that children, staff and
visitors are expected to `Respect other people's culture, race,
background, gender and ability.' Please visit the school website for
further information:

[2]http://www.sirjohncassprimary.org/keyinf...

It is the responsibility of the school to ensure that incidents that are
deemed to be racist are reported to the governing body and these incidents
are recorded and returned to the Local Authority for monitoring purposes.

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.

Black History month, recognition of the Holocaust, Eid,
anti-bullying week and other historical, religious, cultural events and
anniversaries are observed, with projects and displays worked on by pupils
and staff. The key to the school's good practice and success is the
outstanding, highly respected leadership team and staff that focus on each
individual child's needs and puts the school at the heart of its
community, which is reflected in the Ofsted report and excellent
reputation of the school.

Please see Annexe A (page 8&9) of the report from Ofsted Inspection for
Sir John Cass Foundation Primary School, 26 September 2008, in the link
below:-

[3]http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers...(urn)/100000

Leadership and management -
How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination
eliminated-Grade 1 (outstanding)
How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? -Grade 1
(outstanding)

3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed
above have been effective (if this has not already been done)?

The Ofsted report which can be found at the above link.

4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the
teaching profession or protect children and young people?

Staff and governors monitor the quality of teaching and learn from each
other. Identified training needs are supported strongly to enhance the
skills and talents of all staff, benefiting pupils' learning
significantly.

The Sir John Cass Foundation primary school serves a diverse community
with the majority of pupils coming from minority ethnic groups, one-third
from Bangladeshi backgrounds. The proportion of children who are eligible
for free school meals is above that normally found, while the proportion
identified as having difficulties and/or disabilities (LDD) or who speak
English as an additional language (EAL) is very high. A Child and Family
Sure Start Centre provide early education and integrated childcare from
08.00 to 18.00 daily for 50 weeks of the year. The care inspection of this
provision took place earlier in 2008. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
provision covers children from 3 months to August 31st following their
fifth birthday.

You may find it useful to know that the school does not allow political
views to be promoted to children or parents. All teachers are expected to
follow the Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers set out by
the General Teaching Council for England. Any teacher or other member of
staff who may be a member of any political party could be considered under
the School Disciplinary Procedures if they were promoting their political
party views within the School. Any such case would be handled by the
Governing Body with HR advice and guidance from the LEA.

We hope this response is of assistance. Nevertheless, should you wish to
make a complaint about the way the CoL has handled your enquiry, please
make your complaint in writing to email address:
[email address].

For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints procedure, please visit the
following page: [4]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which
is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI
Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied; you may request the
Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information
Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: (01625) 545700. Website: [5]http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

Please note that the Act applies to the CoL only as a local authority,
police authority and port health authority. Subject to any other
statutory provisions requiring the CoL to disclose information, release of
information outside the scope of the Act is subject to the discretion of
the CoL.

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not
give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for
example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or
to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for
non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news
reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.

Yours sincerely

Department of Community and Children's Services

City of London

[6]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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