BNP Teachers
Dear Sir or Madam,
By letter of 30 September 2009, The Secretary of State Ed Balls appointed Maurice Smith to enquire into the "promotion of racism in schools". Part of the review is aimed at determining whether members of the British National Party (BNP) should be allowed to work as teachers or in the wider school workforce.
At present there are a number of measures and safeguards in place in place to protect children and young people in schools from racially motivated discrimination and the promotion of political doctrines that advocate discrimination and promote racist views. These are:
• The requirement on schools to have equal opportunity policies
• The duty upon schools to promote racial equality
• Their duty to promote community cohesion
• The duty on governing bodies, headteachers and local authorities to forbid the teaching of partisan political activities in schools
• The powers of the GTC (England) regarding suitability of registration and where teacher conduct could bring the profession into disrepute
I would like you to provide me with evidence of how effective these measures are including whether they are sufficient to maintain trust in the profession and protect children and young people.
Please provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
1) What evidence is there that schools’ equal opportunity policies are effective in combating racism?
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.
3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed above have been effective (if this has not already been done)?
4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the teaching profession or protect children and young people?
Yours sincerely
Mark Walker
Solidarity Trade Union
www.solidaritytradeunion.org
Dear Mark Walker,
RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
With regard to your Freedom of Information Request, Oldham Council are
happy to supply the following information:
1) What evidence is there that schools' equal opportunity policies are
effective in combating racism?
Evidence that schools' equal opportunity policies are effective in
combating racism and promoting community cohesion are provided through
Ofsted school and Local Authority Inspection Reports. A summary of the
grades given by Ofsted since September 2008 are provided below with more
details provided in the first attachment.
Further evidence is also provided in the letter to the Local Authority
from Ofsted "Social responsibility and community cohesion survey:
2008-09" which forms the second attachment.
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.
3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed above
have been effective (if this has not already been done)?
The first attachment provides some information about school activity and
its impact. Further information re measures deemed to be good practice and
recognised as being successful is provided in the JAR Good Practice Case
Study Evaluations of Community Cohesion Initiatives which forms the third
attachment and by the Report A Diagnostic of Community Cohesion in Oldham
Schools which forms the fourth attachment
4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the teaching
profession or protect children and young people?
We have no comment to make in relation to this question.
If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you,
Regards
Sarah
Sarah Brien
Information Governance Co-ordinator
People, Communities and Society
Mordernisation and Information Management
Oldham Council
Unit 1, Whitney Court,
Southlink Business Park
Hamilton Street
Oldham
OL4 1DB
T: 0161 770 1619
E: [1][email address]
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