A Tolerant Community

Lancing prides itself on being a cosmopolitan, outward-looking and tolerant community, but there can be no room for complacency in such matters and we will not shrink from asking ourselves challenging questions about the attitudes within our community.

After all, we live in the time of some striking social phenomena: the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, Everyone’s Invited and the debate prompted by the murder of Sarah Everard leave many with the feeling that we have reached a social and attitudinal tipping point. Certainly, young people have never felt more confident to speak up where they see the unfair treatment of others; the spotlight has never shone brighter on the scourge of prejudice and discrimination in society – and rightly so.

Lancing is determined to play its part in shaping a just and fair society by celebrating diversity and promoting tolerance and inclusion amongst all its people. As a starting point, in the Summer Term of 2021, we conducted the first Lancing College Social Attitudes Survey. This series of questions, based on the Equalities and Human Right Commission’s own ‘National Barometer of Prejudice’, was completed by our pupils with the results helping to frame and shape our action plan.

Much has been planned and achieved so far:

• A curriculum audit by Heads of Departments to assay what we currently teach in academic lessons about the history and lived experience of minorities, with a view to ensuring we embed this firmly and that it has suitable prominence within the core business of the school. • Modifying recruitment processes, so that we do all that we can to attract a staff body whose diversity is reflective of the 37 nationalities amongst our students. • Appoint diversity and inclusion champions in each of the

Houses, to promote the inclusive values and ethos of the College and provide a visible avenue of support to students from minority groups. • Ongoing celebration and recognition of relevant key dates in the diary such as International Women’s Day,

Black History Month, LGBT History Month, Mental Health

Awareness Day and others. • Further staff training on inclusion, diversity, discrimination, prejudice, conscious and unconscious bias, and the vocabulary surrounding these issues. • To continue to evolve and update our PSHE programme with greater emphasis on small group work in Houses, where messages have greater impact and stimulate meaningful ongoing discussion. As one HMM put it,

‘students sometimes feel that PSHE is something that is done to them and they struggle to be involved, but in the more intimate House groups, the barriers to discussion dissolve away.’ • Repeat the social attitudes survey in the Summer Term, to see the impact of the actions listed above.

The results from the survey in 2021 indicate that Lancing is in strong position on these issues compared to broader society, but there is still room for improvement.

Through listening, reflecting and acting with care, we can look forward with confidence to meeting the needs and expectations of all our young people, whatever their background or nature.

ANDREW CHAPPELL Assistant Head (Pastoral)

A Black History Month display in the Science Department. Drama students Omar Mubarak Ali and Poppy Sutcliffe rehearse some scenes from Noughts & Crosses.