Schools now have a legal duty to prevent young people from being drawn to terrorism (since 1 July 2015). Schools should be alert to issues around staff, pupils and parents.
At St Ursula’s Catholic Primary School, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.
Duty of schools and other settings
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 which became law in February 2015, puts a responsibility on schools to participate in work to prevent young people from being drawn into terrorism, and to challenge extremist ideas that support, or are shared by, terrorist groups.
Schools are subject to the duty to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. Being drawn into terrorism includes not just violent extremism but also non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit.
The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify pupils at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). All our staff have received WRAP information and take part in training sessions.
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