Racial Justice

Dear parents and Carers,

In line with our mission and values, our priority is to make Ursuline High a fairer and more inclusive place to work and study, with belonging and racial justice at its heart, offering dignity and respect to every child, member of staff and parent in our school community. We accept that breaking down long-standing racist inequalities will take time, and this is an ongoing commitment.

Our Curriculum and Enrichment Programmes provide students with daily opportunities to grow and learn, whilst our Recruitment & Retention Strategy and Continuous Professional Development Programme ensure a diverse workforce, with staff trained on all EDI components including Racial Justice. As part of this strategy, we prioritise supporting many national celebrations. Following the national Black History Month theme ‘Proud to be,’ our Black History Month this year featured a wide and varied programme designed to promote knowledge of Black history, culture, and heritage, and the positive contributions of RMG people to British Society. And our Hispanic Heritage Week was dedicated to learning more about the Hispanic culture and heritage and celebrating its contribution to society.

We want to build a culture that is inclusive, respectful, enabling, inspirational, integrating, and self-reflective. To date we have achieved demonstrable progress in all these areas, and I am delighted to share a summary of our Racial Justice Impact for 2021-22 (below). With targets exceeded across many areas including Assessment, Curriculum, Continuous Professional Development, Destinations, Disadvantaged Pupils, Student Voice, and Teacher Training, I hope you will agree that we have made positive changes for our racially marginalised current and future students.

To ensure the best outcomes, with a creative and collaborative approach, we will continue to work closely with our Task Force, Governors, students, and staff. Progress will be reviewed annually and reported to students, staff, parents/carers, and other stakeholders.

As I am sure you can appreciate this is a collective effort, and for it to succeed, must be embedded into all aspects of the school’s operations, and into daily life and experiences of the school community. I am proud of our Strategy, the progress we have made and our future growth. I am committed to eliminating discrimination, removing barriers to success, and advancing equity of opportunity and outcomes for everyone at the Ursuline. This is the end goal.

Lastly, I want to thank the Governors, parents, and students who have participated in our Racial Justice Task Force and the contributions they have made to moving the school forward.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss our Strategy in any more detail, please do contact me via my PA Lydia Torch. 

Yours faithfully,

Julia Waters

Supporting Documents

Becoming an anti-racist school, A Governor’s Story