December 2020

• Our BAME strategy group/diversity working party have been met regularly to drive the direction of ongoing staff training. This work has seen the launch and preparation of initiatives such as an antiracism staff library and training created and delivered by our own student leaders (like this video created by a Year 13 student for a staff training session). 
• As part of the working structure of the Centre, we have a termly Post 16 Forum which offers an opportunity for subject leaders at both schools to share and collaborate in the development of teaching, learning and assessment. This year the core focus of this forum is the diversification and decolonisation of the curriculum. To start this, faculty teams have completed an audit of their work and set out specific commitments and aims for the remainder of the year.
• Student representatives have met with City Leaders to discuss issues surrounding the experience of growing up as a BAME young person in Bristol.
• Senior Leaders at the Centre have begun a programme of race, identity and school leadership training. 
• Planned tutor activities have been reviewed to ensure that all students and groups are represented.  As part of the developed tutoring programme at Cotham learning community, we have now launched guidelines to facilitate open conversation around equity and diversity and have incorporated a weekly discussion session into our tutor program where students discuss the issues raised through the social media post of a BAME / LGBTQ+ / social justice influencer. 
• We have proactively sought students’ individual feedback on the correct pronouns to use when addressing them, and updated central records accordingly.  We hope that, by doing this, we can take an extra step to remind ourselves and each other of the importance of respecting individual pronoun preference as a critical part of our identities.
• Student Leaders from our Equity and Diversity team met with Michael Herford from Legal Lifelines (via Zoom) to start shaping our work together. 
• To mark Black History Month this year, we want to ensure that we are talking about how we can get to a point where Black History does not need an isolated month, but is integrally learned and celebrated in year-round learning. As a starting point, we are ‘sharing the mic’ with our students, asking them to express their views on how education can, and must, do more to represent and educate around students’ racial identity and heritage. You can see more of this on our social media channels.
• We have reworked our review template for STRIDE lunches (collaborative student voice review conversations around learning and wellbeing), and other student voice opportunities, to incorporate challenging questions around representation, identity and pride.