Agenda item

RESOLVED:

·         That the report be noted.

Angela Scattergood (Director of Education Services) and Sandra Roberts (Director of Lewisham Learning) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

3.1. The steering group on ‘Tackling Race Inequality’ was being led by head-teachers and over the course of 18 months had evolved to include governors and other key stakeholders. This steering group had done extensive work with children and young people to ensure their voices were heard and their views were included as part of the plan being developed to tackle race inequality. There would be a particular focus on Black Caribbean boys, but the plan would cover all race inequality.

3.2. Officers wanted to highlight point 4.4 in the report which talked about the midterm review of the programme that was commissioned by the steering group. Michael Keating, an expert consultant was brought in for this review and he was really happy with the progress that had been made by the steering group so far.

3.3. The Young Mayor’s team had been working with young people in the borough to produce a small film. This film would be premiering at the Lewisham Migration Museum on the 23^rd of February 2023 and members of the Committee were invited to attend. Teachers had been working on a resource pack that would be accompanying the film.

Committee members were invited to ask questions. The following key points were noted:

3.4. The Committee was concerned that according to the report, attainment had improved in Lewisham overall but there had been a widening attainment gap between Black Caribbean children and the Lewisham average. There also seemed to be a geographic disparity when looking at attainment with certain schools having a wider attainment gap than others.

3.5. Officers informed the committee that the data around attainment was not validated. Validated data would be coming to the Committee in March 2023 as part of the School Standards report which would provide for a more accurate analysis. Nevertheless, it was clear that some geographic areas had been more adversely affected by Covid-19 compared to others, and this was reflected in the figures. However, it was noted that this wasn’t always the case as there were some large variations between different schools in the same geographic areas. Officers were looking at the co-relation between gender, ethnicity, disadvantaged background, geographic area & level of engagement and how that affected attainment.

3.6. Susan Rowe from Lewisham Education Group and Lewisham Black Parent Forum was invited to address the Committee.

The Lewisham Education Group had collectively reviewed Michael Keating’s interim report and had some concerns mainly around how the data was gathered and the fact that a lot of leads working on embedding racial equality in schools weren’t getting sufficient support from the School Heads. Also, even though 100% of the schools in the borough had signed up to the Race Equality Pledge, further training was needed to raise awareness amongst children about what this pledge actually meant. There was a need for more community groups to start working with the children rather than work happening just through schools.

3.7. Susan spoke to the committee about understanding the cultural differences between black children from African backgrounds and those from Caribbean backgrounds. Families with a Caribbean background, the Windrush generation and their families, had been in the UK for a longer time and had endured a different level of long-term racism and poverty. She felt that African families were generally still very much a tight family unit with a strongly embedded focus on education. Understanding these cultural difference was crucial in helping children from these backgrounds.

3.8. Susan Rowe also spoke about the LYLA (Lewisham Young Leader’s Academy) and how that had benefitted a lot of young people by giving them the chance to dream big and giving them different opportunities to explore. It was mentioned that the Committee would be going to visit LYLA in St. Dunstan’s College on the 21^st of January 2023.

3.9. Officers informed the Committee that a ‘Community Conversation Spaces Framework’ had been developed to enable regular communication between school leaders and communities. A ‘Governor’s toolkit’ had also been developed by a group of committed governors who wanted to ensure every governor, new or experienced, had the support to understand their school’s journey to meeting the Race Equality Pledge.

3.10. Each school improvement partner met with the school 3 times a year to look at how the school was implementing the Race Equality Pledge. The Tackling Race Inequality steering group had asked that comments from each school improvement partner be collated and presented to the group so that they could analyse how each individual school was doing when it came to implementing the pledge.

3.11. The response rate of the survey carried out by ‘The Centre for Education and Youth’ to help evaluate Lewisham Learning’s work on tackling race inequality had doubled to 40% this year compared to last year.

3.12. It was discussed that work to tackle racial inequality also needed to focus on beyond the school factors. Officers confirmed that a well-rounded approach was being taken that encompassed early help and preventative services.

3.13. Earlier in data reporting, only the term ‘Black’ was used to denote children from both Black African background and Black Caribbean background but now data reporting had evolved, and it was recognised as important to drill down into the subsets of data instead of labelling them all as one.

RESOLVED:

·         That the report be noted.