• Review and build on action plan to ensure there is a race equality focus.
• Develop common race equalities policies for Poplar Partnership schools.
• Ensure this policy underpins work in Poplar Partnership schools.
• Provide appropriate training for key workers in Poplar Partnership schools.

• Race Equality Audits were carried out in all but one of the Poplar Partnership Schools. An external consultant carried out the audit following the CRE guidelines. She reviewed the relevant paperwork and met with the head teacher and/or deputy head teacher of each school to discuss the audit and make recommendations for action. Appreciation for the external consultant’s highly professional and conscientious work was recorded at the PP Steering Group, a regular meeting of all PP head teachers and the PP Management Team.

• In April 2002 Susan Lawrence Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated with the Elizabeth Lansbury Nursery to form the Lansbury Lawrence School. In the light of this upheaval and radical changes in the Senior Management Team over the Summer Term, it was thought not to be in the best interest of this school to begin the work in the short term. A meeting has already taken place between Kay Scoresby (Director, Poplar Partnership and Liz Curren (new headteacher of Lansbury Lawrence) to promote the Race Equality work that has taken place in other PP Schools.

• The audits have been followed up in three Poplar Partnership Schools with focus groups. Pupils and teachers were involved in two schools, Manorfield and Bygrove. In Langdon Park, Year 9 pupils have been involved in consultation, but the EAZ team still need to involve members of the school’s staff. With the departure of the head teacher of Mayflower school in the summer term, it was felt that no further consultation should take place until a new head teacher was in post.

• The organisation and co-ordination of focus groups (and INSET: see next point) proved time-consuming. Extra support was brought into the project from a highly experienced INSET provider and former deputy head.

• A detailed evaluation of the joint Manorfield/Bygrove INSET that took place at Manorfield School on 3/09/02 is in a separate document. This was an inspiring day. The head teachers of both schools have already committed themselves to developing an action plan based on the recommendations by their staff.

• Positive image resources have been purchased for all schools. In Langdon Park, resources were spent on GCSE textbooks, in response to a review the PP co-ordinator conducted during the Spring term, on the quality of teaching and learning in the Beliefs and Values module, that all pupils follow as part of their Humanities GCSE course. These books, Religions in Focus: Islam in Today’s World; GCSE Islam have been welcomed by staff as a useful resource for their own learning as well as those of pupils.

• Positive image resources have been purchased for all the primary schools. These have been ordered from Oxfam and are intended for use in the library. Some of the resources are big books. Others are readers designed to appeal specifically to very small ethnic groups within the school, for example children from Albania, Serbia and Kosova, who have little contact with own cultural background in school.

• Poplar Partnership continues to work closely with the Bright Street "Promoting Racial Tolerance" project. The project manager has drawn on their own understanding of race equality issues and legislation to guide them in the delivery of their project.

• The original project proposal was over-ambitious in scope. Insufficient time was allocated to auditing and policy writing. The deadline of 31st May 2002 to comply with changing legislation caused schools to reassess priorities.
• Consultation has shown how only a minority of staff in Manorfield and Bygrove schools have been offered any race equality training. This finding may well be repeated across other PP schools.
• In consultation with the external race equality manager we have concentrated our work in fewer schools and aimed to provide positive, high quality work in the schools we have targeted. The very positive response we have received from the two schools with whom we have worked most closely suggests that this incremental approach has been the right one. It means, however, that at the end of the project there is still a great deal more to be done. The seeds have been sown for further work.
• The project has exceeded its original budget.
• This project is unique, and like the Gobetown EAZ Schools, in that a cluster of schools has worked together through the structure of the EiC Action Zone. This has been extremely successful for a number of reasons:
i) Poplar Partnership team members were appointed by the schools and so are held in a position of enhanced trust and credibility. This places us in a good position to co-ordinate work. The force of our project has lain in the combination of external review by the consultant and self-review by PP schools.

ii) The EAZ provides an excellent system to plan, implement, monitor and review money given by LBTH. We adhere closely to project management plans. We are able to ensure the money is spent on race equality! We can ensure that resources are pooled (in the joint INSET for example). We provide a mechanism to ensure they can be paid promptly.

iii) One of the successes of the Poplar Partnership team has been our ability to make creative links with organisations in the local community. The issues raised here are far bigger than the schools as institutions. We need to think of ways to effect greater change in the wider community. We have learned a great deal through the process of this project and are anxious to build on this in work with other Poplar Partnership Schools.

Practical issues that have arisen include these:

i) Lines of communication could be confused. If the EiC Action Zone is to continue co-ordinating this work, we must be kept informed of approaches by schools directly to LBTH. Poplar Partnership should not be stifling the initiative of individual schools, but information needs to be shared so that PP can maintain an overview of this work. Also, schools would benefit from the growing expertise of Poplar Partnership in this area, saving time in processing project bids and making links with other initiatives to ensure best value.

ii) The Poplar Partnership Coordinator/Manager now has a much clearer idea than when first approached about what is required with regard to a race equality project

iii) The value of the focus group exercise needs to be assessed. One-to-one interviews would be likely to yield more accurate and perceptive results. Focus groups are a resource-intensive exercise. It was extremely difficult to consult school staff on this basis. We relied heavily on their good will to give up a lunchtime, in order to facilitate this consultation, which is not good practice. It was not appropriate to feed back to the young people who had been involved in the focus groups. Greater thought needs to be given to the way in which we follow up their involvement in the consulta tion process.

• Race Equality Audit for Lansbury Lawrence School. (Autumn Term 2002)
• Consultation among pupils and staff in Culloden, Lansbury Lawrence and Mayflower schools. (Spring 2003)
• Consultation for staff at Langdon Park. (To be negotiated)
• INSET for Culloden, Langdon Park, Lansbury Lawrence and Mayflower schools. (To be negotiated)
• Agree and implement action plans in Bygrove and Manorfield schools. (This school year)
• Begin to implement work in other schools, depending on resources available and results of consultation and training. (To be negotiated)

 

	Overview
	Bow School (Boys Secondary)
	Central Foundation School (Girls Secondary)
	The Cherry Trees School
	Chisenhale Primary School
	Columbia Market Nursery School
	Globe Primary School
	Poplar Partnership EAZ
	St Agnes (RC) Primary School
	St Anne's (RC) Primary School
	Stebon Primary School
	Swanlea Secondary School
	Thomas Buxton Junior School