Respect and Resilience - Community Cohesion Steve Bowden Professional Adviser to DfES Presentation made to the WASACRE,

1. Welsh GovernmentDepartment for Education and Skills Respect and Resilience - Community CohesionSteve BowdenProfessional Adviser to DfESPresentation made to the WASACRE, 24 November 2011

2. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela

3. Getting on Together The Strategy focuses on policy and service areas that research has shown can have a significant impact on how well a community gets on together: • Housing • Learning • Communication skills • Equality and social inclusion • Preventing violent extremism

4. CONTEST - four work streams: • Pursue – to stop terrorist attacks • Prevent – to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism • Protect – to strengthen our protection against terrorist attack • Prepare – where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate its impact. A revised and updated CONTEST strategy was published in June 2011

5. Exploring Predictors of Cohesion Factors that potentially impact on cohesion Local Cohesion • Individual level factors • School level factors • Local authority factors Societal Cohesion

6. Community Cohesion and Integration Which of these do you think are community cohesion issues? • Polish workers moving in to UK communities • Somali refugees in Cardiff, Swansea or Wrexham • Youngsters congregating on street corners • Ex-offenders trying to re-settle in communities • Homeless people • Creating a community home for adults with learning difficulties • A group of Gypsies and Travellers moving on to local waste ground • English speaking families moving to homes in Welsh speaking communities • People with mental health problems being integrated into communities • Older people with disabilities who are housebound

7. Examples of concerns that have arisen in schools in Wales between 2008 and 2011 • Far-right anti-Semitic literature encouraging violence towards others • A Year 11 student developed a website that promoted far right extremist groups • A learner attended school dressed as a ‘Jihadi’ on World Book Day • A learner talked about the ‘duty of all true Muslims to prepare for jihad war as we grow up’ and talked of the ‘7/7 martyrs’ with admiration. • A supply teacher left a book in the school library which has a lengthy passage about martyrdom including a phrase ‘this indicates that seeking to be killed and pursuing martyrdom are legitimate and praiseworthy acts’. • During a primary school circle time a number of learners said that they have been involved in physical attacks on children outside school ‘to make them go back to their own country’. • A Year 11 student made a series of comments about Remembrance Day, expounded anti-Semitic and homophobic views and was involved in racist attacks.

8. The extremes • Nicky Reilly • Andrew ‘Isa’ Ibrahim • Bilal Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed • David Copeland

9. The background What links these four Welsh towns? • Newtown • Blackwood • Hirwaun • Caernarfon • Cardiff

10. Learners comments “Community cohesion is the mixing of different cultures. It helps people connect and find their similarities rather than concentrate on minor and cosmetic differences.” “I like my school community because it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Without one piece it’s never complete.” “Community cohesion is important because you need to know the people around you.”

11. Systems Thinking LEADERSHIP Visionary and strategic Resource deployment Collaboration z Bilingual Equality CURRICULUM AND TEACHING Outcomes focus Engaging pedagogy High expectations WORKING WITH OTHERS Citizen-centred Community focused Joined-up Inclusive IMPROVED LEARNING AND WELLBEING LOCAL AUTRHORITY LOCAL AUTHORITY DECYP DECYP SCHOOL CLASSROOM CLASSROOM SCHOOL INTERVENTION AND SUPPORT Early and strategic Differentiated Accelerated development NETWORKS OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Shared beliefs and understandings Inquiry driven Collective professionalism and Interdependent IMPROVEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY Evidence based Ambitious targets Transparent processes High Performance Supportive Culture

12. Guidance for schools

13. Community Cohesion a whole school issue For schools, community cohesion means being: • Part of promoting the ‘Rights to Action’ outcomes for all, especially equalities and community cohesion • Part of the ethos, pedagogy, organisation and partnership working of the school that creates a resilient and cohesive community • Inherent in the way the school is organised and managed as a partner in the community • Something that requires the schools to develop as well as teach • Something that needs to be reflected in the School Effectiveness Profile • Something that Estyn will inspect as part of the Common Inspection Framework; there are many references to community involvement

14. Community Cohesion a whole school issue For teachers: • Contributing to a whole school approach to developing community cohesion • Preparing learners for living in a more diverse community • Developing learners’ global perspective • Exploring controversial issues with an appropriate level of knowledge and understanding in a balanced way • Building the skills that will prepare learners to think critically, laterally, link concepts and make informed decisions

15. Community Cohesion a whole school issue For learners this means: • being encouraged to care for themselves, each other and other members of their wider community • respecting themselves, respecting others and celebrating diversity • appreciating their role in the school community, the local community and the global community • discovering that, whatever they are studying, there are connections with the “big picture” of the wider world • gaining skills and exploring issues in ways which will enable them to make up their own minds and decide how to act in terms of ensuring community cohesion

16. Developing good practice • Leadership • Working with others • Curriculum and teaching • Intervention and support • Managing risk and responding to events

17. Leadership • Developing community cohesion and preventing violent extremism in schools • Promoting the core values of a democratic society and modelling the process • Building staff understanding of their roles and confidence in their skills

18. Working with Others • Reviewing the vision of the school in terms of Community Focused Schooling • Ensuring staff awareness of the community served by the school • Being an active partner in leading the community in terms of social regeneration • Engaging with families and community groups • Evaluating the school’s effectiveness as a Community Focused School

19. Curriculum and Teaching • Learning and teaching strategies • Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) • Personal and Social Education (PSE) • Curriculum subject • Development of relevant skills

20. The RE-silience project Website: www.re-silience.org.uk

21. Intervention and Support • Professional standards for teachers • Challenge and support • Intervention • Managing events in the local, national or international news

22. Managing Risks and Responding to Events • Managing risks • Harmful influences on learners • Accessing inappropriate content through the use of the internet • External groups using school premises or facilities • Responding to events • Events in the local, national or international news

23. Paulo Freire once said “No one educates anyone else, nor do we educate ourselves. We educate one another in communion in the context of living in this world”

24. Respect and Resilience • http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationskills/publications/guidance/respectresilience/?skip=1&lang=eng • http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationskills/publications/guidance/respectresilience/?skip=1&lang=cy