Community Cohesion
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduced a duty on all maintained schools in England to promote community cohesion and on Ofsted, to report on the contributions made in this area. The duty on schools came into effect on 1 September 2007 and the duty on Ofsted commenced in September 2008.
Many schools already work in ways that promote community cohesion and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) wants all schools to build on the best of that practice, so that all pupils understand and appreciate others from different backgrounds with a sense of shared values, fulfilling their potential and feeling part of a community, at a local, national and international level.
Guidance to support schools in implementing the duty was published on 19 July 2007. This guidance defines what is meant by community cohesion and how schools can contribute towards it through their teaching and learning, their work to raise standards and ethos, engagement with the community and extended services.
The recently revised “Framework for School Inspection” was published in September 2009, including revision of the evaluation schedule for Community Cohesion. The ASK Guidance to Supporting Schools has been revised to reflect this latest guidance. Additional support materials are regularly added to this page to ensure that schools are provided with the most up to date and helpful advice and guidance.
 Materials to support schools from ASK | ||
| Promoting Community Cohesion in your School - guidance and support booklet, revised October 2009 | ||
| Frequently Asked Questions about Community Cohesion | ||
| Access this PowerPoint Presentation for School Based CPD Activities | ||
| A Sample 'Model School Policy for Community Cohesion' - Use this policy to write your own school's policy statement | ||
| Activities to Support Community Cohesion in School Some ideas of the kinds of activities that schools may highlight to show their contribution to each of the key strands: Teaching, Learning & Curriculum; Equity & Excellence; Engagement & Extended Services. Evidence of these and other school activities can form a useful portfolio to support statements in the SEF. Schools should consider these as examples of possible activities, not requirements. | ||
| School Cohesion Audit Tool New This audit tool is designed to help governors, school leaders and curriculum managers assess their current practice and help identify priorities for improvement. See introduction for details on its use. | ||
| The Values Game Photocopy and enlarge the chart to A3 size; photocopy the words onto card and cut the cards into sets. Make sufficient sets for groups of three or four. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for groups to arrange their cards, then come together as a whole group to discuss results, findings and issues that emerge.
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| Additional Tools for Schools to Assess their Effectiveness in promoting Community Cohesion New a. What are our strengths and areas for further development? b. What are our links to the Community? c. Which indicators will we use? d. Measuring the Impact | ||
| The Effectiveness of Community Cohesion Writing section A4.8 of the SEF requires schools to illustrate the 'effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion'. These examples are taken from schools and LAs across England to show a variety of possibilities | ||
| Community Cohesion in Action - a curriculum planning guide for schools | ||
 Materials to support schools from Teachernet | ||
| DCSF Guidance | ||
