Home School Liaison

With social inclusion and community engagement high on the agenda Cambridgeshire Race Equality & Diversity Service (CREDS) is committed to promoting the dialogue and links between school, home, other agencies and community. Our aim is to ensure that the education system serves the needs of all minority ethnic including Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, migrant and refugee and unaccompanied asylum seeking young people as effectively as possible.

CREDS supports:

schools to develop school-based and out of school hours projects that improves attendance and achievement

schools and other agencies in establishing and maintaining links with community based voluntary organisations

parents to encourage attendance at parent’s evenings and by providing advice and additional information on particular needs and circumstances

other agencies to ensure that information such as education welfare benefits and other entitlements are accessible to minority ethnic families.

schools and communities to deal with incidents of racial harassment

 

CREDS Team for Traveller Education employs Home School Liaison Officers and a Youth and Community Development Co-ordinator who work with schools, young people, parents, community and other agencies to help them meet the educational needs of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils.

In addition, CREDS employs Bilingual Support Officers (BSO), a Black Community Support Officer (BCSO) and Learning Mentors (LM) to work with schools, young people, parents, community and other agencies to meet the needs of Black Minority Ethnic groups, migrants and refugees. Community based ESOL and Citizenship programmes are run for adults to help develop confidence and skills. Learning Mentors provide one to one support for identified young people to raise their educational achievement. Translating and interpreting can be arranged through CINTRA (Cambridge Interpreting and Translation Agency), payment for which is the school's responsibility.   Bilingual support is provided to some BME and migrant workers children in schools via the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant Team