26 Jun Tackling Racism and Inequality
A Commitment from Canonbury Staff
Tackling Racism and Inequality, June 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
The murder of George Floyd has affected all of us. At Canonbury, we join with voices all over the world to say ‘enough’ – enough racism, enough inequality – and the protests and debates taking place in society are inspiring us to ask: are we doing enough and in the right way to tackle these issues?
The first statement in the Canonbury school vision is:
We believe that learning is at its most powerful when everyone respects each other as part of our community.
When we renewed our school vision, one quality was the top choice by far for our children, parents, carers and staff: Respect. We are sure that if we asked this question again, the answer would be the same. That is why one of the five key capacities of learning we strive to develop in our ‘five minds’ curriculum is the ‘respectful mind’. All of our Canonbury community belong equally at our school, regardless of race, sexuality, gender, religion or anything else that makes us who we are. Yet our children can see that racism, inequality and the harm they cause are still major issues for the world and the society we live in.
Canonbury staff agree that our curriculum must become strong at addressing these issues – strong at representing Black people and the diverse ethnicities of our community in all areas of our curriculum; strong at challenging racism; strong at exploring injustice and justice and strong at celebrating diversity. To do this effectively we believe that we need to listen to the views of our community – children, parents, staff and governing body – and work together to grow a culture of equality that fills us with pride.
So we will:
- Set up an equalities working group with representation from all parts of our community
- Improve our curriculum to include deeper learning about the experience, culture and history of Black people and the diverse ethnicities in our community
- Educate ourselves about unconscious bias, through staff training
- Work with Islington colleagues, using local advice and resources on equality in the curriculum
We ask parents and carers to take the opportunity to discuss with your children how racism affects our world. The attached leaflet ‘Parent’s guide to black lives matter’ will support you to do this. We also welcome ideas and suggestions from you about how we can do more at Canonbury to tackle these issues and you can contact Patrick, Headteacher, to do this.
When we show parents around Canonbury for the first time, we say we are a ‘family school’ because this captures the atmosphere created by our children, parents, carers and staff. We stand together as one family in our commitment to equality for all,
Yours sincerely,
The Staff at Canonbury Primary School
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