The Spring 2008 Bulletin is out now. Its first few pages are dedicated to the 2008 Jim Rose Lecture given by Rageh Omaar and Michelynn Lafleche's reflections on Runnymede's work over the past 40 years and its challenges for the future. It includes a critical review on how New Labour depicts today's youth, an introduction to Runnymede's next 'State of the Nation' report on the topical subject of 'Race and Elections' as well as a look into the reasons behind the relative high achievement of British-Chinese pupils.

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UKREN will hold its first Council Meeting on 13 March 2008 in London. This meeting is open to UKREN Council Members. The keynote address will be given by Anastasia Crickley, Chair of the European Fundamental Rights Agency and OSCE Personal Representative on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination.  

This meeting will provide the opportunity for UKREN Council members to discuss the future direction of UKREN and contribute to the shaping of UKREN's work programme. It will be a day-long seminar and will examine the latest EU Policy issues relevant to the UK agenda on equality. These include:

• EU Social Inclusion policies
• EU Migration and Integration Policies
• The Impact of Multiple Discrimination

For each topic, we have asked experts in the field to share their knowledge on these specific issues and to help us identify how to relate them to the work of UKREN in the next 2years.

The meeting is to be held at the the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre.

The meeting is open to Council Members. Any UKREN member can sign up to become a UKREN Council Member. For further information on how to become a Council member, please contact the UKREN Secretariat at ukren@runnymedetrust.org

Go to the UKREN page

Two new papers have been published in our series of Community Studies and are available for download from this site. Our Community Studies aim to move beyond categorisations as broad as Black, Asian and White, to recognise the diversity within and between ethnic communities

In an attempt to move beyond the stereotype of the ‘Thai bride' Jessica Mai Sims focuses on the experiences of Thais in the UK, with an emphasis on the needs and concerns of Thai women.

Andreea R. Torre focuses on Romanian migrants and the networks they employ to build their lives in London.

Runnymede is currently seeking expressions of interest for an exciting opportunity for a secondment to lead our education work for 6-12 months.

Interested parties with a relevant background in education research and/or policy - for example, from a government department, local authority, teaching union or association, university, classroom teachers, school administrators, etc - should send an expression of interest to Runnymede by 4pm on Friday, 14 March.

To find out more see our Vacancies page

Gung Hei Fat Choi! Chinese New Year is celebrated this weekend (Feb 9) with a wide range of events. A new feature on the Real Histories Directory, 'Website of the Month', focuses on DimSum.co.uk,  a key educational and community website for British Chinese communities.

The Website of the Month feature will highlight a site that may be of particular interest to pupils, teachers and parents. It includes links to other relevant websites and resources on the directory. Click here to visit the Real Histories Directory.

Parliamentarians have taken the Education Secretary, Ed Balls, to task on policy towards faith schools. Barry Sheerman, the Chair of the Commons Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families, grilled the Secretary of State in his first appearance in front of the committee, asking for greater clarity in terms of government's relationship with faith-based schools. He used Runnymede's interim report from our Faith Schools and Community Cohesion project to suggest that faith schools could be having a negative effect on cohesion. You can read the uncorrected transcript on Parliament's website.

January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). This important commemoration aims to educate people about genocide, as a result of Nazi persecutions but also more recently. There will be many events throughout the country to mark this day. Our Real Histories Directory contains websites and other resources for teaching and learning about the Holocaust

The latest Runnymede Bulletin is out now. It includes a report from from our conference 'Promoting Community Cohesion through Schools' with speeches from EHRC Chair, Trevor Phillips, Schools Minister, Jim Knight MP and Communities Minister, Parmjt Dhanda MP. There are also research reports on race equality training in mental health settings, and Lord Goldsmith reports on his review of British Citizenship.

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Schools are now under a new Duty to Promote Community Cohesion. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 inserted a new section 21(5) in to the Education Act 2002 introducing a duty on the governing bodies of maintained schools to promote community cohesion which came into effect on 1 September 2007.

This one-day national conference, held on 26 November 2007, drew together teachers, practitioners and policymakers from schools, local authorities, voluntary and community based organisations and other related sectors to highlight the central importance of, encourage debate about, and explore good practice on the role of schools in promoting community cohesion.

Speakers at the conference included Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; Jim Knight MP, Minister for Schools and Learning, Department for Children, Schools and Families and Parmjit Dhanda MP, Minister for Community Cohesion, Department for Communities and Local Government.

Contributions also included those from Sayeeda Warsi, Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion & Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party; Andrew Stunell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Liberal Democrat Party and Sir Keith Ajegbo, Lead Associate for Education at the Institute for Community Cohesion.

Extracts from many of these speeches and a more detailed report of the conference can be accessed here.

Runnymede's Perspectives Paper, Mixed Heritage: Identity, Policy and Practice which includes contributions from academics, policymakers, grassroots organisations is now available for download.

Visit the Mixed Heritage Projects Page for more information on the publication, E-Conference, and Mixedness Conference at London South Bank Univeristy.