A Teachers' Guide for using the innovative Video ART Postcards in the classroom is now available to download from the website. Lesson Plans for Citizenship (Key Stages 3 and 4) have been designed for teachers, youth workers and others working with young people to support teaching and learning about slavery, racism and resistance. They use the Video ART Postcards short films made by young people aged 14 to 19 during the summer of 2007.

The Real Histories Directory has added a new feature to the site: a regular 'Website of the Month'. We'll be choosing a websites listed in the Directory that we think might be of particular interest to schools, teachers and students. This month, we have picked Global Footprints. Please click on the 'Website of the Month' link on the left to view the feature. If you have any other suggestions or comments, please do let us know at realhistories@runnymedetrust.org

At the recent Promoting Community Cohesion through Schools conference, Runnymede launched a new publication.

Dr. Nicola Rollock’s paper Failure by Any Other Name? explores how staff at one particular inner-city secondary school construct academic success, how these views shape their practice and the subsequent implications for Black pupils being able to achieve academically. The paper can be downloaded from the Runnymede website.

Recent educational reforms have emphasised parental choice as central to the raising of standards in schools for all pupils despite nothing being known about the exercise of choice among Black and Minority ethnic parents.  A new Runnymede Trust education report, the subject of a cross-party debate in the House of Commons on 4 June 2007, highlights that race does indeed impact upon parental choice. The report argues that in failing to establish how different groups exercise choice, policy reform in this area has ignored the sectors of society that it intended to benefit. Policy in this area fails to tackle ethnic segregation between young people.

The report School Choice & Ethnic Segregation: Educational Decision-making among Black and minority ethnic groups, based on interviews with parents and children across three education authorities, highlights that there are far-reaching implications for this failure to incorporate the choice making processes of parents from across all groups in policy debate and formulation. Click here to download the report (10.47MB).

The Runnymede Trust and Real Histories Directory wishes to profile some of the very important work that takes place in schools and elsewhere during the months of October and November for Black History month. If you are a teacher (primary or secondary) who has organised something for your class or school, specifically for Black History month, we would particularly like to hear from you. Please send an email detailing in 250 - 300 words what you did, the name of your school and age of the pupils involved, to realhistories@runnymedetrust.org.