Summary
This quick guide and toolkit are designed for teachers, school leaders, pastoral and safeguarding staff, governors and others working with children and young people.
It provides practical guidance and resources to support schools to understand racism and hate, recognise how they may present, respond consistently and effectively, prevent harm, and strengthen inclusive whole-school practice.
The toolkit recognises that racism and hate can take many forms. They may be overt or subtle, intentional or unintentional, and can occur face-to-face or online. Harm may arise through individual behaviour, language and
attitudes, as well as through wider practices, policies and systems.
Creating meaningful and sustained change therefore requires more than responding to individual incidents.
Schools can play an important role in developing pupils' understanding, challenging prejudice and harmful narratives, strengthening belonging, and creating environments in which all members of the school community
feel safe, respected and valued.
The toolkit aims to support schools to:
● develop a shared understanding and language around racism, hate and identity-based harm;
● recognise overt, subtle, coded and online forms of harmful language and behaviour;
● respond consistently and proportionately when incidents occur;
● strengthen curriculum, classroom practice and critical literacy;
● reflect on policy, practice and school culture; and
● embed anti-racist and anti-hate practice across the whole school.
How to use the lesson plan
A quick guide will give you the key headlines for combatting racism and hate in schools.
The toolkit is a deeper dive with more detailed information, techniques and actions to take.
Evaluation
For teachers
We are keen to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of these resources as they are used by teachers in schools.
We would welcome your feedback in conversation or as part of a written email. Please contact Stéphanie Mitchell, (s.mitchell@reading.ac.uk).
We encourage you to be as open and honest as possible as this will enable us to better develop the materials. All data will be anonymised prior to analysis.