1. Equality Training for Teachers – Trafalgar Junior School
March 2015
Introduction:
Who am I, my background and why I’m especially interested in equality and
diversity –
I think all of you know me as the Chair of Governors butnot all of you will
necessarily know that much about me or why I’mqualified to come and talk to
you about equality and diversity.
Chair of Governors /father of E in Yr 5 / D now in Yr 11
Governor, firstin Infants when Dwas in Yr 1. Also know someof you fromthe
Trafalgar Green Dragons paddling and rowing crews…2005 to 2012!
In my other world, I’mthe AssistantGeneral Secretary of Napo – the
professionalassociation and union for staff working in probation and family
courts. That’sa world where the impact and costs of inequality and
discrimination areevidenced starkly.
Prior to working for Napo I was a senior official in two different unions 15 years
and so inevitably, whether it was negotiating pay, terms and conditions or
representing individuals I’veacquired a fair understanding of the issues,
prejudices, and challenges around equality and diversity. And prior to that I
was a junior schoolteacher and NUT activistfor 6 or 7 years – so I know a bit
about the challenges of the classroom.
DISCRIMINATIONMATTERS
Discrimination, whether overt and deliberate or an indirect consequenceof
ignoranceand accident, remains with the individual throughouttheir life.
Whether it becomes a motivating driver or a negativedrag on their
confidenceand self-esteem, it’ssomething that disproportionately shapes
and forms what follows.
Before the last General Election in the run up to the 2010 Equality Act, which
introduced a public sector duty to publish information relating to equality and
diversity, there was important recognition of the impact of discrimination in

2. schools. Although thenumber of permanent exclusionshad more than halved
it was still around 6000 a year. After the election, the Children’s
Commissioner was tasked with producing somereports into the story behind
the figures. Their report, “They Never Give UpOn You” makes startling
reading. Amongstother things this has sharpened Ofsted’s interestin
measuring and monitoring this whole area – because exclusions are about
discrimination.
FACTS
 40% of NEETs had been excluded fromschool. Around ¾ of young
offenders reported being excluded or excluding themselves fromschool.
 Children with free schoolmeals were 4x morelikely to be excluded.
 SEN children were 8xmore likely to be excluded (x7 with a statement
and x9 without)
 Boys are 4 x more likely to be excluded than girls
 Boys of Black Caribbean and Black African origin are x4 more likely to be
permanently excluded than any other group.
 Over 5000 children were being permanently excluded a year and over
300,000 temporaryor fixed-termexclusions.
The report identifies Jack and Jill. Jack is of black Caribbean origin, in a single
parent family with low income and an identified learning difficulty. Jill is a
white British girl in the same class but froma moderately affluent family with
two parents and no learning difficulties. Jack is 168 x more likely to be
excluded than Jill. I tried the maths for how much more likely Jack was to be
excluded than the Indian girl sitting next to Jill but gave up.
Incredibly, thereport also identified increasing illegal practices within schools –
non-recording of temporary and shortterm exclusions, especially in Academies
and the refusalto refer cases to an IndependentAppeals Panel.
The DfE’s responsewas typically confused and discriminatory –the 2011
Education Act removed the legal requirement for an IndependentAppeals
Panel and placed more freedom / responsibility on Head Teachers to manage
behaviour…whilstat the same time telling Ofsted to ensure the gap in
attainment and progress was prioritised.

3. It’s worth looking at Ofsted’s responsebriefly. TheDfE Equality Objectives have
5 priorities. 1 is aboutclosing the gap in attainment across thekey groups
identified. 2 is about closing the opportunity gap between richer and less
affluent children. 3 is about giving moreparental choice (though it doesn’t
explicitly say you have a choice to insistyour child isn’texcluded). 4. Is perhaps
the mostinteresting in terms of tonight’s discussion –
“We expect head teachers to take a strong stand against all bullying –
particularly prejudice-based racist, sexistand homophobic bullying”
#5 was about how the DfEshould conduct itself but wasn’tcaveated except in
Gove’s office, so wecan ignore that one.
So we can be sure this is on Ofsted’s radar.
DIFFICULT& SCARY SUBJECT
But this is a difficult and scary subject. Firstly, it exposes how irrational and
emotional theworld is. Rational thought doesn’treally exist – we may like it
too but every decision peoplemake is rooted in another emotional decision
as to what’srational, or whether reason aloneis enough. And nothing makes
people more emotional than their children. And no-onearemore sensitiveto
emotional issues around them than children.
Secondly, there’s a lot of profit to made in sensationalising issues around
equality and diversity. Get something wrong and it can quickly become a
newspaper or internet story and suddenly the schools’ at the heart of an
episode of ‘the Simpsons’. Your actions exposeyour values and what type of
community you REALLY are.
And thirdly, equality and diversity isn’t easy. As we operate emotionally our
prejudices are always live. We need to recognise this and insulate ourselves
fromthe risk of them causing a shock.
NO COMPLACENCY
Furthermore, noneof us knoweverything and the best of us recognisewe
know next to nothing. I’vegiven speeches in big halls, occasionally about

4. things I didn’t know much about; been interviewed on live TV and radio;
organised events with thousands attending; played guitar to a Gary Barlow
song in a talent show; butnothing has been as daunting as taking charge of a
class of 35 eleven year olds when I firstmoved to West London in 2001. I was
22. Straight out of the Welsh valleys and specifically fromthe community that
Vincent Hannah, the BBC journalist described as, “the mostsocially
conservativein Britain if not Europe”. I knew nothing about anything useful
and had to teach these kids about the world they were growing up in.
Now in that situation I couldn’t pretend nor could I hide. If I wanted to help
those kids I needed to learn as well. What I found was how fascinating and
rewarding that learning was and how it helped me grow.
In the same way as science, music and art (the 3 subjects my teachers had told
me I was useless at) became real teaching passions and now genuine hobbies,
finding out about different groups and communities helped challenge my
broader perspectives and outlooks and have made me much richer, more
secureand emotionally resolute.
So thereis no embarrassment in saying thisis scary and difficult. Thedanger
is not accepting thisand trying to avoid what we don’t know.
Interestingly Trafalgar’s already pretty good and thousand times better than
whereI started…if this job goes wrong I’mrefining a stand-up routine based in
large part around working for my first head in the 90’s – but that means we
can also fall foul to the greatest risk of all in this area – namely complacency.
And if someone’s coming in to Trafalgar, froma similar boat to me, then it’s
easy for them to feel more isolated than I did in an environmentwhere it was
obvious wewere all making it up as we went along.
The challenges in Trafalgar are also growing. For me the mostdisturbing
statistic in the Children Commissioner’s reportwas how much morelikely a
black boy was to be excluded in a school wherethey were in the minority than
if they went to a schoolwith a higher proportion of BAME pupils…i.e. it can’t
justbe them but how their environmentis reacting to and on them. And in
large part that must be because the leaders in these environments fail to
understand, interpret and supporttheir needs…they’reafraid of them rather
than embracing them.

5. BUT POSITIVELY
Get thisright and therewards are huge.
Governors recognisethatwe’re doing pretty well and it would be easy to think
we know all this already. But we see the danger in complacency and we see
the signs that there are still gaps to be closed and challenges to be tackled.
We think that by recognising the challenges that come with an increasingly
diversecommunity; embracing these and being proactive, building upon what
we do well we can use our strengths to not only minimise the risks and reduce
the fears that come with equality failures, but that this can a critical driver in
pushing on and attaining the standards and progress thatsee us recognised as
outstanding. Our setting ourselves high aspirations in this area can also help
shapeour broader communities attitudes.
ACTIVITY 1
So that’s why I’mhere. Time for you to start reflecting. In groups:
Talk about and list thingsthat you ALL thinkwe currently do well; then things
SOMEOF YOU thinkwe do well.
- In the conversation jot down any worries or concerns that any member
of the group says they haveor may have about dealing with issues linked
to or arising fromequality and diversity.
- To help I’mgiving all of you an updated version of the schools Equality
Monitoring and Review Matrix (moreon that later) to help you see the
headings that encompass equality and diversity.
ACTIVITY 2
If knowledgeis the gateway to understanding now I’d liketo organiseyou into
groups of at least 2 or 3 whereboth members of staff have taught largely the
same class or know the samechildren and families. You may want to all do this
later for your current class but for now team up and pick a class.

6. I want you to consider:
- How well do I know my class and their families / backgrounds.
- Can I identify any potential disability, equality, diversity issues?
- Are their gaps in my knowledgeabout that child? Eg. If a child is of
Romanian background whatdo I know about Romania? What elements
of the curriculummight this knowledge / lack of knowledgeimpact?
- Where and who can I find out morefrom if I need to?
MATRIX
You may haveseen our matrix.
This is and has been for a while a part of the currentpolicy but I’d be very
surprised if anyonehas used it.
This is now hopefully going to change. What you have is a revised draftand I’m
very much hoping for some very honestand genuine feedback over the next
week and Richard will be emailing you a feedback fromover the next day or so
on this session and the matrix.
For Governors ithas two possible uses:
1) on a regular daily basis as a planning aid memoir…a check if I’veconsidered
x, y and z in preparation; all communications; planning and exercising trips;
how things are managed around the school(e.g. collective activities like sports
days; Christmas concerts…e.g. do you know that all children know whata
Christian angel looks like and does this matter; can everyone afford to make a
costume/can we avoid a show stopping or utilise a grand design); and around
the community.
2) in a few key planning phases as a usefulexercise planning and reporting
document. Eg. In passing on or inheriting a new class what do you know, need
to know? Itcan promptyou into thinking about how you can ask and find out
sensitively and reasonably gaps in the knowledge. In passing on a class you can
have a clear set of information to pass on – recognising that the type of
information stored would have to be accurate and fair as if asked you could
have to shareit with a pupil or parent.
Another example is in planning the curriculum – not justin terms of the tricky
subjects like history but at other times … aretheir issues, questions,

7. differences I may need to research and be ready for. Are their opportunities to
utilise someone’s expertise and experience?
(10 minutes to discuss.)
REFLECTION
The offer 1:1 if any one has specific questions, thoughts, concerns, ideas…
otherwiselet the restof you get off. Thanks for listening and as ever for all of
the excellent work you’redoing in making Trafalgar a special environment for
our children.