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Community Cohesion in Oldham Schools

Welcome to the Children, Young People and Families directorate's Community Cohesion web pages

This area of the website provides a ‘shop window’ for the revised CYPF and Partners’ Community Cohesion Strategy. The initial work in developing the strategy has taken place in the summer and autumn of 2008. However, given its ‘shop window’ nature, the web pages will grow, develop and be continually updated to ensure it is current and fully reflects local and national developments and best practice.

If you would like to make additions to the web pages please contact the Children, Young People and Families Communications team on 0161 770 1326/3254 or email lauren.jones@oldham.gov.uk

What Oldham is doing well: Findings of the Cantle Report May 2006

• “We have found that few cities, towns or districts in other parts of the country have done as much as Oldham in seeking to build community cohesion."
• “Oldham has every right to be proud of its record to date.”
• “In terms of promoting positive approaches to cultural differences the educational establishments are playing leading roles."

Report Review of Community Cohesion in Oldham: Institute of Community Cohesion May 2006

Purpose of Strategy: What we want to achieve

The central aspiration in developing the revised strategy is to build on existing good practice and meet the challenge to transform Oldham into a beacon of best practice in building cohesion across all its communities set out in the Institute of Community Cohesion (ICOCO) Report Review of Community Cohesion in Oldham.  In order to do this we have articulated the following key objectives:

• To formulate an achievable common vision for community cohesion for CYPF, schools and educational settings within the Oldham Children’s Trust
• To contribute to making Oldham a more cohesive set of communities (class, gender, ethnicity, religion/belief, sexual orientation, disability)
• To support schools/education settings in providing opportunities for children and young people to experience integration and promote opportunities for  well-being
• To provide support and challenge to strategic leaders, stakeholders, staff, governors, families and communities to effectively promote community cohesion in their school/educational setting (and across schools/settings in Oldham)
• To support schools to meet the requirements of the new duty to promote community cohesion
• To contribute to the achieving of the Oldham Council Community Cohesion Strategy and the CYPF Children and Young People’s Plan

We will seek to achieve these key objectives through focusing our community cohesion activity around the three key pillars set out in the  Council Oldham Community Cohesion Strategy of Identity; Equality and Engagement

To enable us to do this we have included a 'shop window' of the Local Authority offer in respect of community cohesion projects/initiatives as well as good practice case studies from Oldham schools. We also provide ‘in one place’ references/links to the wide range of support, advice, good practice etc available at national level.

Promoting Equality for All Groups

This website particularly focuses on developing community cohesion across schools and the borough.  A key element of this work is actively promoting equality for all groups and setting community cohesion within the wider equalities agenda in relation to class, gender, religion/belief; disability; sexual orientation. A Sample School Model Equalities Policy has been developed by Misbah Rana of the School Improvement Service that schools will find useful in developing their own equalities policies and action plans.

Cambridgeshire LA has also developed model policies which Oldham schools may find useful: Equality and Community Cohesion in Cambridgeshire Schools

Audience: Who the Strategy is for

We hope that the Strategy will of use to a wide range of people including professionals with key roles in promoting community cohesion as well as pupils, students and family and community members. The audience for the document therefore includes:

• Strategic Leaders in Oldham Schools/Educational Settings; the CYPF Directorate; Oldham Children’s Trust
• School Governing Bodies
• Teachers; Educators; Practitioners
• Children, Young People and Families
• Community groups and organizations: Voluntary and Faith Sectors

Please see the “child pages” on the right for the different sections of the strategy and therefore the contents of the webpage.

Community Cohesion in Oldham Schools:

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