Diversity and Inclusion
Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been vital and powerful anti-racist reflection across the world.
At Ruth Miskin Training, we have taken time to listen to our staff, read, research and talk about what it means to be an anti-racist: as an individual, a team, an organisation. As a global citizen.
We are committed to long-term work to contribute towards a society where opportunities are equal for all, regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, neurodiversity, LGBTQIA+ and socio-economic status.
Since 2003, our mission has been to inspire headteachers and teachers to:
- Teach every child, regardless of age, background or need
- Choose the best books to read aloud so children might read them for themselves.
Since 2020 we have:
- Added a third aim, to place literature as the central pillar in establishing all children’s identity
- Set up a diversity group and opportunities for our training team to talk about race, diversity, equality, equity and inclusion
- Run half-termly trainer meetings to understand what racism is and how we can act to affect change
- Suggested reading lists for staff
- Curated a list of books that reflect all children’s lived experience on our school portal and added this to the agenda for every day we work in schools
- Created and shared an equality, diversity and inclusion policy.
As of March 2023, our next steps are to:
- Review Read Write Inc. storybooks and Fresh Start modules with Oxford University Press to ensure they reflect our diverse society
- Review our recruitment processes to encourage more applicants from racialised and underrepresented groups
- Provide anti-racist, anti-prejudice training to all staff in our organisation
- Share films on our school portal to prompt schools to carry on the conversation about anti-racism and anti-prejudice
- Examine our own processes to ensure we meet our equality, diversity and inclusion standards
- Seek always to learn and improve to become a diverse and inclusive organisation.
This is vital and urgent work and is high on the agenda for the leadership and diversity teams.
If you have suggestions or questions, please email us at diversity@ruthmiskin.com.