Moorside Primary School and Nursery in Ripon has been named as one of the most culturally diverse schools in North Yorkshire and has been recognised for its inclusivity.

The school has pupils from 17 different nationalities and has become the first in the county to be awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) Flagship status.

Almost 10 different languages are spoken by children at the school and almost 20% of the school, 33 pupils, do not speak English as their first language.

It has 190 pupils of various religious beliefs and there are children whose families originate from countries such as Nigeria, Syria, Afghanistan, Poland, Pakistan, Romania, China and Latvia.

The Inclusion Quality Mark was established in the UK in October 2004 with the objective of supporting both state and independent schools to become inclusive.

Claire Rowett, headteacher at Moorside Primary and Nursery, said:

 “There have been increasing opportunities through our IQM work to raise pupil voice and provide them with a platform to share projects, as well as share their learning opportunities, knowledge across the curriculum, personal development opportunities and also how they keep safe, mentally and physically healthy.

“We support and celebrate diversity within our school community.”

Ms Rowett added:

“Some of the work has also led us to achieve gold in the North Yorkshire Council’s Healthy School Awards for our efforts to improve the health, wellbeing and resilience in our school community. I am, as ever, extremely proud of everything that we have achieved at Moorside. The success that we have had has been through the tenacious hard work of all staff and governors, working with our children and their families, which we value greatly.

Above all, we are proud of our pupils and their confidence in sharing the work the we do together – they are the best ambassadors for our school”

Children in class with teacher Georgia Padbury-Hunt.

North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for education and skills, Amanda Newbold, said:

“The IQM award recognises the commitment by schools to provide the best education for all children irrespective of differences. This recognition truly reflects the wonderful work of staff, governors and, of course, the pupils at Moorside Primary School and Nursery to successfully remove barriers to learning and maximise educational experiences. Congratulations to all involved.”

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Female councillors have called for action to improve the representation of women in North Yorkshire local government.

Just 24 out of the 90 councillors elected on May 5 to serve on North Yorkshire County Council for a year and four years on its unitary council successor are women. This equates to just under 27%.

The proportion roughly reflects the 26% of female councillors previously elected to North Yorkshire County Council and the 29% of female candidates standing in the election.

All the main political parties fielded significantly fewer women candidates than men, a situation which was also replicated by the Independent candidates as a group.

Ahead of the polls, equality campaigners said the imbalance would make it “nigh-on impossible” for those elected to reflect the population they serve — unlike neighbouring local authorities such as Leeds, Durham and East Riding, where respectively more than 50%, 38% and 36% of councillors are women.

However, other largely rural county councils such as Devon, Norfolk and Cumbria all have fewer than 30% female councillors.

When asked why the proportion of women elected in North Yorkshire last week was low, numerous female councillors said they were at a loss to explain it and would welcome a council scrutiny committee investigation into the reasons.

Responding to the election results, Scarborough councillor Liz Colling, a Labour member, said:

“I always think action should be taken to encourage women to speak up to feel empowered to act as voices for their community.”

Cllr Janet Sanderson, who was the sole woman serving on the council’s 10-member decision-making executive before the election, said it was important to select candidates on merit rather than gender.

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The Thornton Dale Conservative member said to encourage more women to put themselves forward in future, it was crucial to get the conditions right for women to serve as she had faced aggression from people making complaints.

Cllr Sanderson said:

“As a woman I would feel terribly aggrieved if I thought I had been put on a shortlist because I was a woman.

“The whole environment needs to change. It’s a very male-dominated arena and a lot of women would need a lot of confidence before they put themselves up for that, which is a great shame.”

Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock said in her 23 years as a Tory councillor she had never encountered issues as a woman, and that meetings had even been rearranged to ensure she could carry out a school run minibus service.

Calls for ‘better balanced’ executive

Experienced councillors Caroline Goodrick, who secured the Sheriff Hutton seat as an Independent by just seven votes, and Janet Jefferson, who were both handed leading committee roles by the last administration, said they hoped the new executive would have a better balance.

Cllr Goodrick said:

“I’m a great believer that it should be more representative of the spread of the electorate and I’m not sure the result achieved that, but I’m also a believer in democracy and the electorate get what they vote for.”

Scarborough Independent councillor Jefferson said she had never encountered any gender bias at County Hall.

She added:

“I would welcome an inquiry as I would like to know the reason why we get more predominance of men than women because I would have thought it was an even playing field.”

A Harrogate primary school has earned national recognition for combating prejudice between people of different religions and ethnicities.

Coppice Valley Primary School finished second in the annual Accord Inclusivity Awards. It was one of only four schools to be praised for its work in the awards.

Accord is a coalition of organisations that includes religious groups, humanists, teachers, trade unionists, educationalists and civil rights activists, working together for inclusive education.

One of the judges, the Reverend Stephen Terry, presented the school with a trophy during a presentation assembly this morning.

After the ceremony he said:

“Coppice Valley Primary School’s effort and commitment in creating and maintaining an inclusive environment would be highly impressive were it a large secondary school.

“For instead a primary school to be embedding inclusivity into its ethos and ways of working to the extent that it is, is truly exemplary.

“The judging panel is therefore delighted to celebrate it as an inspiration for others across the country.”

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The school has given its staff gender and sexual identities training, re-examined its curriculum to address white and western bias and anonymised job applications to avoid bias.

Coppice Valley Primary School headteacher, Emma Meadus, said:

“We’re delighted to have been recognised for our work in school to promote mutual understanding and respect. It’s a wonderful achievement for the whole school community.”

Harrogate District Hospital has unveiled rainbow crossings to welcome LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff.

The hospital has painted three crossings so far and plans to add a further two crossings.

It hopes the crossings “act as a visual symbol of inclusion” and “enhances the work we’ve been doing” to better support LGBTQ+ people.

During the last year Harrogate hospital has launched three staff networks for LGBTQ+, BAME and disabled staff.

We’re delighted with our freshly painted rainbow Pride crossings (the first three of five) at Harrogate District Hospital.
They send a message that the hospital – and the Trust as a whole – is an open, inclusive and non-judgemental place for LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff. pic.twitter.com/z69vEUTmQo

— Harrogate NHS FT (@HarrogateNHSFT) October 11, 2020

Stonewall, which campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, found that LGBTQ+ people face widespread discrimination in healthcare settings.

Some NHS trusts and national NHS bodies have made it onto Stonewall’s top 100 employers over the past decade.

Harrogate and District NHS Trust hope its launch of rainbow badges and the appointment of its first equality and diversity lead will help it make it on the list.

A Care Quality Commission inspection in 2019, which rated HDFT as good overall, found a lack of diversity at senior level and said senior leaders “were aware that they need to undertake more work”.

A spokesperson for HDFT said:

“We’re delighted with our freshly painted rainbow Pride crossings at Harrogate District Hospital. They send a message that the hospital – and the trust as a whole – is an open, inclusive and non-judgemental place for LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff.”