Since September 2007 schools have been under a new duty to promote community cohesion. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 inserted a new section 21(5) to the Education Act 2002 introducing a duty on governing bodies of all maintained schools to promote community cohesion. The duty follows on from advice and standards set for the promotion of community cohesion under Section 23A(6) of the Education Act 2002, with which schools will already be familiar.
New non-statutory guidance was published for schools on 19 July 2007 (see attachment below) and explains what is meant by, and how a school can contribute to community cohesion. The recommended guidance acknowledges and outlines the work that schools already do and what more might be needed.
Ofsted inspections on the contributions that schools make to community cohesion commenced from September 2008.
For further information or advice please contact the Learning and Improvement Team 01724 297094.
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Note: The above document is available to download as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It can then be viewed and printed using a reader, such as Adobe Acrobat (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the website).