Black Lives Matter
The Raedwald Trust has joined forces with schools across Suffolk for a new project, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
The campaign, which has been given the title ‘silence is compliance’, is being led by The Raedwald Trust and will see schools come together to work on a range of activities to improve diversity.
As part of the project, schools will be supported to ‘look inwards’ and voluntarily carry out audits of their inclusion policies, procedures and culture. Schools will also take part in a number of activities aimed at making schools more inclusive and welcoming for staff and students.
This will include training and awareness raising programmes delivered through online webinars, and inter-school collaborative projects, such as Black Lives Matter-inspired podcasts, drama and art projects.
There are also plans for a music video, with inspirational quotes from black historical figures, as well as pupil engagement projects focussing on the campaign’s theme.
To date, six schools have signed up and Angela Ransby, Chief Executive of The Raedwald Trust, would like to see even more schools taking part. Speaking about the project, Angela said: “Before we start talking to our students about diversity and inclusion and Black Lives Matter, we must first get our own houses in order.
“We look first inwards to see if we can be doing better before we look to support others.
“We then move forward with an array of exciting projects aimed at making schools in this county more inclusive and welcoming places for all our staff and students.
“We are incredibly pleased that so many schools have already signed up and we are now encouraging others to join us.”
The Raedwald Trust is committed to addressing racial inequality and racism. Since the Black Lives Matter movement began, staff have encouraged lively debate surrounding the issues raised. Our pupils have regular opportunities to engage in open conversations about inequality, with explicit teaching around tolerance, kindness, and diversity forming an integral part of our delivery.
This campaign recognises that there is much more that can be done to improve equality of opportunity in education and we are excited to be able to make such impactful changes to that effect.
The Raedwald Trust recently hosted the first in a series of webinars aimed at helping our staff and pupils develop their understanding of the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. Entitled ‘An Introduction to Institutional Racism in Education’, the webinar explored the school experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic young people and gave ideas and practices for improving equality of opportunity in education. You can watch the full webinar here.
For a full list of the schools taking part in the project, please click here.