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Young people bear the olympic torch of tolerance

DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES News Release (2008/0125) issued by The Government News Network on 23 June 2008

- First Annual Citizenship Week embodies the Olympic Spirit -

Pupils from schools across the country are being encouraged to explore their identity, ask what it means to be British and celebrate diversity as part of the first Who Do We Think We Are? Week to help build community cohesion.

Schools Minister Jim Knight will today launch a week of national events by visiting a trailblazing scheme where schools with largely white pupils in rural areas link with those with a majority of Muslim pupils in urban Bradford to develop understanding, appreciation and shared values to overcome tensions and bring people together.

Sir Keith Ajegbo's review of Diversity and Citizenship in the curriculum, published in January 2007 and welcomed by the Government, recommended a week in which schools focus on exploring issues of identity, diversity and shared values. This will mark its first year.

With the Olympics around the corner, it will also give young people a chance to explore ideas of national pride, 'Britishness' and international cooperation, especially as today also marks International Olympic Day.

Classrooms during the week will also consider challenging issues around faith, community, history and ethnicity. The Ajegbo report found that white working class boys and girls have a negative perception of their British identity and can feel as disenfranchised and negative about their British identity as non-white pupils.

Jim Knight will be travelling around the country during the week visiting various schools and projects.

The Bradford model of school linking Mr Knight is visiting has proven very successful in promoting community cohesion and led to the Government investing £2m, supported by £1m donation from the Pears Foundation, to establish the Schools Linking Network in October 2007 to support all schools across the country to set up linking projects.

In Bradford he will be accompanied by Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson - one of the country's most decorated athletes, as part of a series of visits around "Britishness" and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

They will discuss with school pupils sometimes controversial issues, such as: 'which national team do you support'; 'is it alright for sportspeople to switch the country they compete for'; and 'how much does national pride have to do with the will to win'.

This year children of many cultural and ethnic backgrounds from primary and secondary schools in Bradford will come together at Marley Stadium to stage their own sporting event.

Jim Knight will also visit the country's only maintained secondary Sikh school, Guru Nanak in London, which Ofsted considers to be a model school for meeting the new duty to promote community cohesion.

He will then return to his own primary school in Greenwich - an opportunity to reflect on his own identity.

Over 500 schools have formally announced their intention to get involved in the week, and planned activities include:
* cultural video diaries;
* cultural celebrations of dance, food and drama;
* visits to places of worship;
* firming up national and international school links;
* local research and community projects around local history and geography fieldwork;
* school debates around values, identities and diversity;
* guest speakers from the community;
* working with museums, archives and libraries.

From September Ofsted will begin to inspect schools on their duty to promote community cohesion. Activities like Who Do We Think We Are? Week and school linking are key ways schools can fulfil this duty.

It will also help students and teachers prepare for the new 'identity and diversity' strand of the citizenship curriculum - which will be taught from September.

Minister for Schools and Learners Jim Knight said:

"The Olympic spirit, which brings people from different cultural backgrounds together, is embodied in these projects. Young people from different backgrounds are discussing some of today's most controversial questions in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

"Schools should be our breeding grounds for tolerance - one of the essential British values. In a world and society that seems to be constantly challenging young people, it is important that pupils have a voice and an understanding that bind communities together.

"The citizenship curriculum encourages them to take an interest in topical and controversial issues and to engage in discussion and debate. Pupils learn about their rights, responsibilities, duties and freedoms and about laws, justice and democracy. They learn to take part in decision-making and different forms of action.

"Every school has a moral responsibility, regardless of the social or ethnic make-up of its pupils, to educate children so that they can live in, work in and enjoy our diverse society. That is why Ofsted will be inspecting schools on how well they promote community cohesion from this September."

Sir Keith Ajegbo said:

"People migrate, people travel, people trawl the globe on the internet. We are a world on the move. But do we know who lives around us? Why we live where we do? What is good and bad about our neighbourhood?

"I hope that 'Who Do We Think We Are' week gives pupils the opportunity to look first at their local communities and to study the relationships, the triumphs and the tensions around them. We believe the journey begins at home and then moves outwards to the wider UK and global contexts."

NOTES TO EDITORS

* Who Do We Think We Are? Week is run by the Department for Children, Schools and Families with the Royal Geographical Society and Historical Association providing classroom materials and support for teachers.

* The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have also been involved and 23 June also marks International Olympic Day.

* See http://www.whodowethinkweare.org for more details.

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