Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
A new city-wide curriculum for schools, the One Bristol Curriculum, will be created to highlight Bristol’s BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) history and the achievements of local people from BAME backgrounds. It will also tie into the One City Plan.
The need for the curriculum stems from the results of a report by the Runnymede Trust in January 2017, which found that Bristol is the most racially segregated core city in Britain, and that white Bristolians have better job prospects than Bristolians from BAME backgrounds.
Tackling racial inequality through education means that young people would be able to learn without conscious or unconscious racial bias, and underrepresented groups would feature in lesson plans and work schemes.
The curriculum aims to improve tolerance and respect in schools and communities. It will cover:
Racial division exists despite the mix of cultures, languages and religions in the city: in Bristol City Council’s population report (December 2018), it emerged that people of 45 religions and 187 birth countries live in Bristol, and 91 languages are spoken. 15% of the total Bristol population is not defined as ‘White British’.
The One Bristol Curriculum steering group consists of the Bristol Music Trust, the ‘One Bristol’ collective, REEG (Race Equality in Education Group), and several individuals. Please click here and complete a short survey to help shape the curriculum.
Esther Deans, Chair of the Commission on Race Equality in Education Group, said:
“The ‘One Bristol Curriculum’ is a new, exciting contribution towards addressing racial inequalities in our city, improving education outcomes, and enhancing tolerance and respect in schools and communities. It will begin a golden thread that will run across key stages and subjects, to complement the current curriculum.”
It is hoped that a pilot study of the One Bristol Curriculum will begin in selected schools by autumn 2019.