£2.50 | AUGUST, 2023 • ISSUE NO. 1945
In this issue... BUSINESS
SPORTS
CARNIVAL
Rise of the social entrepreneur
Women’s sport has new goals
Stories behind the street celebration
£18 TRILLION £18,000,000,000,000 TIME TO PAY PAGES 10-11
PAGES 45-47
PAGES 34-38
Britain’s reparations debt BRITAIN OWES more in reparations for slavery than the entire size of the national economy, a report has found. The figure of £18 trillion - higher than the Gross Domestic Product of the UK - was calculated by academics at the University of West Indies. The Brattle Report aims to quantify the real cost of slavery and its legacy by looking at factors such as pain and anguish, forgone earnings and loss of liberty during en-
slavement. It also puts figures on disproportionate unemployment, life expectancy and loss of heritage after emancipation. Dr Robert Beckford, of the University of Winchester, said: “The first steps to restorative justice is truth-telling and asking ‘how much do you owe? Then we’ll meet you at the bargaining table.” FULL STORY PAGE 6 & 7
8 | THE VOICE AUGUST 2023
Education Recruitment
ADVERTORIAL
Joshua Coleman is Chief Executive of EMAT – the East Midlands Academy Trust – and has designed a clear vision to create world-class schools that demonstrate integrity of purpose through high aspiration for every child. EMAT are driven by a strong moral purpose that every child has the right to outstanding teaching and leadership By Anshu Taneja EMAT and The Voice have joined forces to provide excellent job opportunities for those wishing to enter the Teaching and Education sector. Please see page www.voice-online.co.uk/recruitment/for some of the job roles available. Q: First of all, can you tell us a little about yourself? I’ve been CEO at EMAT for the last six years, but have worked in the education field – including prisons – for over three decades. What I have discovered is that there is a disproportionate impact on those from an ethnic background compared to the supposedly white working-class. This uncomfortable fact stuck with me throughout all of my subsequent job roles. Prior to joining EMAT, I worked in NACRO (the National Association and Care for the Rehabilitation of Offenders), and I was responsible for the education provision across England and Wales. I saw people on their journey in and out of the criminal justice systems and once again realised the disproportionate number of those from a more diverse cultural heritage represented in in the prison population – and it frus-
trated me greatly. That’s what convinced me to believe that if I was able to get further upstream of the problem, I would hopefully be able to make a difference so that it wouldn’t continue to happen. And that led me to the world of schools and education. Obviously, I can only influence the schools within my Trust, but I think collectively we can all make a big positive change. Q: What is the EMAT vision? Our vision is that “every child deserves to be the best they can be.” And that’s what really matters to me. I think having that as an aspiration with our values of inclusion – which has been one of our major drivers for the past two years – makes a real tangible difference. We set high expectations for our leaders and teachers to support and stretch every child to ensure they
make excellent progress and build the skills, knowledge and attributes that will prepare them well for secondary school and beyond. Q: Why is it so important to have a diverse workforce? I’ve said many times that diversity and inclusion is more than just saying that we have a percentage that matches the
population. It’s about creating an environment where there’s mutual trust and respect. It lays the road for the future. Not only are we now inviting people aged between 25-60 years old to come in and work in our schools and be promoted to headteachers, but the very fact that they are doing that means they are visible within the organisa-
tion and therefore they are automatically inspiring children across our schools. We have over 5,000 children and 600 staff, and though it’s only a small step in our 65 million population, it’s still a large number of people to influence. For us to achieve this, we need to raise our cultural awareness around perception of behaviours and slowly
AUGUST 2023
ADVERTORIAL
THE VOICE| 9
Education Recruitment
begin to influence the whole of the community. Young people can hopefully see positive role models and that there’s a way out of the deprived areas where we are. People can see that there’s a tangible career for them where they can speak and behave in a professional manner but still be tied into their own personalities and personal beliefs on equity. Q: How do you promote diversity in your schools? The celebration of all festivals such as Black History Month, Diwali and Eid are extremely important but alongside that is how we diverse and ensure our curriculum is inclusive and how to ensure our students impact and influence the wider community. We do need Black history, but we actually need the whole history to be able to make sure that the full story is told and not just the selective colonial whitewashing parts of it. We need to make people aware of inspirational role models from the past who were from other backgrounds and heritage, and who were there throughout great points in our whole history. That then gives them ownership of being part of our collective country’s heritage, rather than feeling that they are outsiders. There are many wonderful quotes by famous people about equality, but if we are truly equal then we need to treat and love each other on the same level. Diversity is not just about heritage or culture. It’s about other things
such as misogyny. You have to collectively want change for change to happen. You can either be a bystander, or, be an upstander and get involved and make it happen. Q: What challenges do those in school face, and also those who are excluded from schools? The path to difficulties starts when children don’t have role models in their lives and those from ethnic backgrounds have disproportionately higher rates of exclusions in schools. Exclusions present a huge problem because youngsters are then out of a protective environment of a school where they have members of staff and adults to help them, educate them, encourage them, and nurture them. Those who are out of that care bubble are exploited more easily. When I used to work for NACRO, I realised that ‘predators’ such as gang members and their affiliates used to
hang around where pupil referral units or alternative provision are, and they were able to access and exploit them. That is a life-limiting thing. Once you have been in prison or got involved with the police, getting employment and housing is extremely challenging, and so it manifests itself across the whole realms of life for the individual that’s affected. Q: Tell us about your interaction with a group of Year 9’s? One of the things that really stimulated me with my vision was when I met a group of thirty Year 9 pupils from a vast range of backgrounds and heritages who had set up an inclusion and diversity group for over a year – on their own. They asked the headteacher to meet me and it was an amazing three hours and I loved every minute of it. They grilled me with probing questions like “Why is there no representation on the senior leadership in the schools for us? What’s our recruit-
ment strategy? How do we educate our staff around micro aggressions?” And these interactions really pushed me to think deeper. We already had many things in our curriculum such as PHSE to develop students’ knowledge, and staff training to enhance their understanding of equality, but now I had to push in diversity training, and actively implement more positive action to try and accelerate towards a more reflective staff body. Our staff ratio is very similar to the rest of the country; 85% of teachers in state-funded schools are white British, in comparison to 71% of the working age population who are the same, so that’s an increase of nearly 15% in the school workforce population. And conversely there are lower numbers from ethnic profiles, and just 3% of those are moved on to be headteachers. Also, 74% of employees in teaching are women but only 66% are headteachers. On every level there-
fore, there is disconnect between what should be happening and what is actually happening in the wider context. Q: What is your annual Olympics Day? Every year we host an Olympic Games on June 24th and we have a vast range of sporting athletes from track and field attend. The East Midlands is awash with sporting icons and several GB Olympians have come and positively influenced our students. One of the most exciting athletes I have seen is a Paralympian called Ryan Raghoo, and has supported us by going into our schools and talking to our students about his experience and the barriers to children. Imagine you are an ethnic group as well as having a disability, the barriers in front of your life to success are amplified. He was extremely inspiring to listen to. Q: And finally, what do you hope to achieve by teaming up with The Voice? We are very excited about our collaboration with The Voice, who have consistently and successfully addressed injustices and diversity issues within society for decades. We hope to address the under representation in education to reflect the communities in which we serve. It was a natural choice to link with The Voice and we have 20 job roles available on The Voice website recruitment page.
Source: School workforce census, Database of Teacher Records, Database of Qualified Teachers
School workforce in England, Reporting year 2022 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk) Scroll to Teacher Characteristics / Ethnicity / Charts