Abbott and Livingstone team up for fifth London Schools and the Black Child Conference
3 12 2007
In March 2002, London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone (below), and Hackney North MP, Diane Abbott (left), established the first London Schools and the Black Child Conference to highlight the continuing crisis in educational attainment for African-Caribbean heritage children in London.
This Saturday 8 December 2007 they will be holding the fifth such conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster. The conference will be opened by the Mayor and speakers will include Lord Andrew Adonis, Minister for Schools and Learners, Diane Abbott, government speakers and special guests from the worlds of education and the media.
London Schools and the Black Child is a key Mayoral educational initiative in London and takes as its focus concerns around the underachievement of African-Caribbean heritage children in London, and boys in particular. It is a central element in the Mayor’s ongoing dialogue with London’s African-Caribbean community, providing a unique platform for discussion of one of the most critical issues facing London’s education system and has succeeded in placing the issue at the heart of the government’s education agenda.
In the five years since the first conference, the tide has begun to turn for African-Caribbean heritage children in London’s schools, with indications that the achievement gap is narrowing and that black children are making progress. More black teachers are being recruited, helping London’s teaching workforce to look more like the communities they are there to serve, while more resources than ever before are being allocated to raising African-Caribbean achievement in our schools.
However black boys are still far more likely to be excluded from school than their peers, while studies continue to highlight the disproportionate adverse treatment given to black children in the education system from pre-school assessment through to the crucial secondary years.
Since 2002 over 7,500 parents, students and teachers have attended London Schools and the Black Child. Seminar themes this year include pupil exclusions, backing Black teachers and supporting black fathers.
To register for the conference - admission is free - fill in this form and send it to:
c/o Diane Abbott MP,
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
Email: lsbc2007@hotmail.co.uk
For further information visit the Mayor’s website.
