Glasgow launches anti racist curriculum for early years centres

Glasgow’s young children are to be the first in the country to benefit from an anti-racist curriculum which will be embedded in the day to day life of early years centres.

The new Anti-Racist Curriculum for Glasgow - An Approach for Early Years Centres, which is designed to help young children become responsible citizens of Glasgow and effective contributors in the wider world, as well as recognise any injustice, was launched this morning. It is the first time that staff in early years centres in Scotland have had a comprehensive anti-racist pack to support their work with young children.

The packs will not only be distributed to the Council’s 126 early years centres - which together provide more than 11,300 part time places - but will also go to the 88 Partnership nurseries across the city which provide a further 2526 places.

The move comes two years after Glasgow became the first of Scotland’s 32 local authorities to introduce an Anti-Racist curriculum pack to all primary schools.

Bailie Gordon Matheson, Glasgow City Council’s Executive Member for Education and Social Renewal, said: “At that time, were asked whether we would be starting work on a similar pack for the secondary sector. However, the indications are that the earlier you can pick up any tendency towards discriminatory or prejudicial behaviour, the better chance you have of successfully tackling it. So we decided to target the pre-5 sector first. Now that we have completed this pack, we will turn our attention to how best to have an influence over youngsters of secondary school age.”

He added that the Council was committed to the principles of equality of opportunity and social justice, and recognises the right of all citizens - of any age - to live free from discrimination and prejudice.

“Although our schools and pre-5 establishments are regularly praised for their positive ethos and strong values of respect for all, we recognise there is still work to be done,” Bailie Matheson said. “That is why we have developed this pack, which will ensure that staff in our pre-5 establishments have the skills needed to enable our children to recognise and deal with racism in its most subtle of forms as well as its most obvious at a very early age. We believe it will be a very powerful tool.”

The hard-hitting pack is divided into three sections - Children, Parents/Carers and Staff.

The Children’s section aims to:

• Develop anti-racist attitudes in young children through the concepts of belonging, celebrating and contributing;
• Provide young children with knowledge and skills so that they may develop positive attitudes to allow them to take action against unfairness, and
• Impact positively on children’s ability to challenge racism and inequality.

The Parents/Carers section aims to:

• Develop parents’/carers’ awareness of racism and its negative effect on society;
• Enable them to support their children to develop anti-racist attitudes and practices, and
• Help Early Years Centres work in partnership with parents/carers to address issues around racism.

And the Staff section aims to:

• Develop staff skills in supporting an anti-racist curriculum for Early Years;
• Give examples of practical help in dealing with racist incidents;
• Empower staff to deal with racism on a day to day basis;
• Be reflective about the impact of racism on children and parents/carers;
• Provide support materials for staff.

Margaret Doran, Executive Director of Education and Social Work, said: “There is no place for racism within any of our schools and centres. I am particularly delighted that this pack focuses on the three most important groups involved in early years education: children, parents/carers and staff. It embraces the holistic approach to children and families, which we must adopt if we are to make a positive impact on all of Glasgow’s children, especially those in the early years of their development. This pack is an excellent example of how we are working towards a truly anti-racist education system which is based on care and respect for self and for others.”

Interest has already been expressed by several other local authorities in Scotland in purchasing the Anti-Racist Curriculum packs for their own early years centres. As well as a 92-page written document, the pack also contains support materials in the form of a CD and a DVD.

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