Raising Attainment is a series of six posters that have been produced mainly for secondary schools, though they may be used in primary schools and can also be useful to support careers education.

The posters centre on a series of easily identifiable curriculum activities engaged in by various children of African and African-Caribbean origin. The children feature in the posters are all from Liverpool's Shorefield's Community Comprehensive school.

AIMS OF THE PROJECT

The Raising Attainment poster pack came out of a wider project called Challenging Racism which has been operating in a number of Liverpool schools for several years. The Raising Attainment Steering Group is made up of a number of concerned individuals from Education, Social Services and the Early Years Trainers Anti racist Network (EYTARN).

It was in recognition of the fact that children of African and African-Caribbean origin are, in many areas, least likely to achieve at GCSE level that the posters were produced. They are meant to serve as a positive statement about Black ability and the fact that, given the opportunity, Black youngsters have the same potential as all other children to do well at school.

Recent Reports - Education

A number of recent reports have highlighted current inequalities in education with regard to Black People and have made suggestions and recommendations in order to redress imbalances in service provision. The most notable of these reports are: The Macpherson Report (1999) and Raising Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils (OFSTED 1999)

MACPHERSON (1999). There are three education recommendations in this report which can be summarised thus:

extend the National Curriculum to include cultural diversity

inspect for equality, though OFSTED, and ensure that inspectors are conversant with issues of race and racism

monitor, assess and set targets. Schools, governors, LEA's and parents should all know the relationship between race, exclusions and academic achievement. For this to be successful schools need to have effective monitoring systems in place.

OFSTED REPORT (1999). The report examines a number of schools and Local Authorities nationwide with view to highlight good practice in terms of the provision of school services.

One of the reports main conclusions is that those schools that monitor, (those that for example know the relationship between race and academic achievement), provide more equitable services because they are in a position to set targets for underachieving groups, identify the causes of underachievement and devise preventative strategies.

One of the most significant findings of the report is that boys of African-Caribbean origin are one of the least likely groups to achieve 5 GCSE's at grades A-C. The performance of Bangladeshi children is worse than that of African-Caribbean boys because many of these children have either little or no English or have English as an additional language. There are no linguistic issues for African-Caribbean boys.

The report also identified that Children of African-Caribbean origin perform as well, and in some instances better, than their white counterparts in baseline assessment tests when entering into school, but that by KS1 they start to fall behind and more so at KS2. This being the case, the importance of what goes on at school, Black role models, curriculum resource etc., cannot be over stated and it is for these reasons that the Raising Attainment poster pack was produced.

The pack consists of six high quality full colour posters approximately 500x700mm. Each poster consists of one main image with a series of subsidiary images showing pupils engaged in various aspects of learning. Also included with the posters are notes and ideas for follow up work.

The subjects featured in the posters include: Biology, Art, Information and Communication Technology, Music, Chemistry and Research.