Cultural COHESION Quality mark
'Every interaction can impact someone else’s day'
‘I have seen some fantastic evidence of your CCQM journey so far. It is brilliant to see the reflection of a growing and developing culturally responsive school. Your pupils and families, staff, governors and community ought to be proud of the exemplary steps you are taking.’ Jhardine Farrell – Leeds City Council Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark Lead.
‘Working towards the CCQM has encouraged our pupil’s to think about their own cultures and to recognise the amazing diversity of our school. It is empowering staff to constantly reflect on their own practise and to be confident to have open and honest discussions in the safe environment of Morley Victoria. We are very proud to be on this journey.’ Morley Victoria CCQM Lead and Class Teacher
‘New people bring new ideas.’ Year 3 Pupil
‘I believe that we are all equal.’ Year 4 Pupil
‘I pledge to always treat people right and I wont judge people from their appearance.’ Year 5 Pupil
‘I loved listening to everyone's cultures, I was very surprised when I heard about all of the cultures because everyone is so different.’ Year 6 Pupil
"The results of the questionnaires are really positive. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the children’s comments, their explanations of what it means to them are fantastic, most better than what I could even think of. Well done this is a true testament to the hard work and commitment from you all at the school." MV Governor
CCQM at Morley Victoria
We are proud to be one of the first schools in Leeds to start on our journey to achieving the Bronze Level of the Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark (CCQM). The principles that sit behind CCQM are ones which Morley Victoria wholeheartedly believe in; to work together harmoniously, to recognise, appreciate and promote diversity, to improve equality and prevent discrimination. As a school, we aim to work compassionately and to be culturally competent in all areas of school life and to continuously promote inclusion. We want to ensure that our pupils see themselves reflected positively both in the curriculum and the school environment.
Did you know?
- 20 children are excluded from school every day for the racist abuse of their peers.
- On average a boy born in the most affluent areas will outlive a boy born in one of the poorest areas by 8.4 years.
- 1 in 8 of the working age population are from a BME background, yet only 1 in 16 top management positions are held by a minority ethnic person.
- Explicit conversations with 5-7year olds about interracial friendship can dramatically improve their racial attitudes in as little as a single week
Inequality, bias and discrimination exists in all walks of life – in gender, race, age class, disability, locality, religion and more. This stifles opportunities and takes a heavy toll on peoples’ wellbeing and happiness. As a school we have a responsibility to give our pupils the opportunity to discuss and consider their own and other peoples thoughts and feelings, whilst in a safe environment.
We started our work towards the Cultural Cohesion Quality Mark in the summer of 2019. It is a lengthy process that is an individual and school journey and it involves threading the principles throughout all areas of school, in every year group from Nursery to Year 6.
Achievements so far include:
*Changes to displays to reflect diversity
*Tweaks and changes to school documents, eg, the school planners
* A wide range of diverse books introduced into school
* New multicultural resources introduced into school
* CCQM and unconscious bias training led by Leeds City Council
* Topics covered in school- diversity week, refugee week, languages week, assemblies
* Lesson plans which recognise diversity
* Black History written into our Curriculum
* Diversity pledges from each class (these were screened in Millennium Square)
* Morley Victoria characters designed and used in school, which represent our pupils
* Links with other schools also on the CCQM journey
We are very proud of the progress we have made so far and what we have embedded into our school, however we are aware there is still much more to do! Please feel free to read all of the supporting documents in the blue boxes, including our most up to date children and staff surveys.
For more information on the Cultural Cohesion Chartermark, please visit: https://iccqm.org/
To read more about Equality and Diversity at Morley Victoria, please click here, this will take you to the relevant page on our website.
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