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Community cohesion

Community cohesion needs to be an integral part of any school's planning and delivery. It has implications for the leadership of our schools, requiring the development of community-facing leadership. This article looks at how schools can fully embrace community cohesion and how community-facing leadership can be developed.

In order to help you evaluate your current situation and plan the successful promotion of community cohesion in and around your school, we have developed an interactive community cohesion tool.

What is community cohesion?

Community cohesion is about ensuring different groups of people share a common vision and sense of belonging, where similar life opportunities are available to all. It is defined as working towards a society in which there is a common vision and sense of belonging by all communities; a society in which the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued; a society in which similar life opportunities are available to all; and a society in which strong and positive relationships exist and continue to be developed in the workplace, in schools and in the wider community.

For further information see:

What are the implications for leadership of schools?

Schools have a duty to promote community cohesion and are evaluated by Ofsted on how well they are contributing to this area.

As with the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda, community cohesion needs to be an integral part of any school’s planning and delivery. The best approach is through teamwork, integrated system leadership and developing a whole-school understanding of the importance and contribution this area has to improving opportunities for children, young people and families. Teamwork involves staff within the school and also governors, parents, pupils, the local authority and multi-agency teams within the area (including voluntary organisations and the children’s trust).

To fully embrace community cohesion, you should not only develop your school as a community built on the core values of respect, diversity, equality and equity, but consider the school as part of the local, UK and global community.

Community-facing leadership requires something extra. Leaders must develop skills which enable them to:

  • foster understanding of their communities
  • raise awareness of prevalent issues
  • remove barriers to communication and progress
  • build bridges
  • promote equity and access
  • be inclusive
  • create energy for a wider exposure to different contexts
  • use diversity in religious beliefs, race, socio-economic contexts as opportunity and enrichment
  • empower others to develop similar skills

These skills come from a deep understanding of your community; through working with children, young people and their families; making the links between ECM and standards and the power of building positive relationships based on common values and beliefs.

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) community mind-map demonstrates the diverse range of partners who play a part in each community and outlines the services that they may provide.

Evaluation of community cohesion: Community cohesion tool

Our strategic evaluation tool will support the development of community-facing leadership and specifically support you as a leader to:

  • understand what community cohesion is and means within your own school context
  • meet the duty to promote community cohesion as placed on you by Ofsted
  • work with the senior leadership team around this agenda
  • evaluate current effectiveness and impact in promoting community cohesion
  • prioritise areas for future development
  • take action with a range of selected resources to signpost to areas identified for development
  • capture evidence for self-evaluation

Within four key areas, the tool enables you to evaluate your current activity based on a series of statements and rate the level at which each is embedded in your practice. As a result a coco dashboard is created. This is designed to give a visual overview of your current position and priorities for action. The dashboard specifically supports section 4.8 of the self-evaluation form (SEF) and the identification of future areas for development. The evidence and impact of a school’s work in promoting community cohesion contributes to a number of SEF judgements not just 4.8. Therefore, the evidence captured within the tool is cross-referenced to relevant sections within the SEF to support whole-school evaluation.

For further information see:

Developing community-facing leadership

The tool encourages you to focus on and have influence at three levels:

  • Strategic level - focusing on equity and excellence to ensure:
    • there are opportunities for all to succeed
    • barriers to learning are removed
    • variations in outcomes for different groups of pupils are eliminated
  • Teaching and learning and using the curriculum to:
    • help pupils to understand others
    • create opportunities to learn about and value diversity in the local community and nationally
    • explore shared values
    • develop awareness of human rights
    • develop skills of participation and responsible action
  • Enrichment – engaging the community and extending services to:
    • provide opportunities for young people and their families to interact with others from different backgrounds
    • build positive relationships with parents and the community
    • develop links with other schools and communities
    • provide extended services and community use of facilities that meet local needs

To support you working at these three levels, resources in the tool have been categorised under the same headings.

Understanding your community context, culture and competencies of the school or setting

It is important that any action plan for community cohesion is framed within a good understanding of the context, culture and competencies of the school or setting for which it is being developed. This is central to the effectiveness and impact of any strategy. School leadership teams often find it beneficial to create a shared narrative about their setting in order to understand the context in which they are working. Here is a brief summary checklist of key areas that should be considered when developing such an overview:

  • local catchment area, demographics and socio-economic factors
  • staff and student profile in relation to race, gender and disability
  • religious and linguistic diversity of your staff and pupils, in comparison to those within the local community
  • characteristics that are particularly unique for your school or community, such as refugees, migrant workers and socio-economic status
  • key equality and diversity issues that you face

Ofsted’s community cohesion cube highlights the different aspects and dimensions that feed into community cohesion.

The different elements to consider are detailed here.

Context and culture of your community

There are a number of resources to assist you in framing an approach to gathering information about the context and culture of your community and who should be involved in order to build an accurate picture of both the context and culture. These include:

There are many others sources of information that could be used including:

Developing staff understanding and competencies

An information sheet is available on the teachingexpertise website offering some key questions to focus on to help keep community cohesion at the forefront of professional learning and development in a school setting.

Schools should consider how the whole curriculum develops and promotes community cohesion, broadening cultural awareness, and provide opportunities for learners to discuss and debate issues of identity and diversity, including those relating to ethnicity, faith and belief.

Community cohesion and religious education

Religious education (RE) is a key subject area that can make a significant contribution to the promotion of community cohesion and pupils’ personal development and wellbeing. Its subject matter gives opportunities to promote an ethos of respect for others and understanding of other faiths and beliefs in a contemporary society.

RE also provides a positive context within which the diversity of cultures, beliefs and values can be celebrated and explored.

  • The community within which the school is located - RE provides opportunities to investigate patterns of diversity of religion and belief and forge links with different groups in the local area.
  • The UK community - a major focus of RE is the study of diversity of religion and belief in the UK and how this influences national life.
  • The global community - RE involves the study of matters of global significance recognising the diversity of religion and belief and its impact on world issues.

Useful resources include:

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