College leaders have been told to consider their approach to staff wearing or displaying political symbols, following a landmark review of antisemitism in education. Ministers have also agreed to more robust reporting of antisemitic abuse and dedicated teacher training in FE. The Department for Education (DfE) today accepted all 27 recommendations from a report by Sir David Bell which laid bare the “pernicious impact” antisemitism is having in schools and colleges. A UCAS survey of more than 5,000 applicants aged 16 to 19 found one in five had experienced or witnessed antisemitism. Of the 92 Jewish respondents in the survey, three in five said they had experienced antisemitism. Jokes, stereotypes and comments made up 85 per cent of incidents in education. Around half were not reported as they did not believe it was “serious enough or would be taken seriously”. Among those that were reported, 27 per cent felt their school or college’s response was “ineffective”. Bell, who was commissioned in March to examine how schools and colleges prevent and respond to antisemitism, will undertake a one-year review of progress, to be aided by an implementation group that includes Noni Csogor, senior research and policy manager at Sixth Form Colleges Association and Jeff Greenidge, the Association of Colleges’ director for diversity and governance. Political symbols The review heard “numerous” examples of teachers and students wearing badges, flags and other political symbols expressing support for Palestine and received “mixed” views on whether they should have a place in education settings. “The issue is not necessarily the presence of Palestinian flags or slogans but the context and impact, for example, who is displaying it, where, and whether it is connected to teaching, targeted at individuals, or whether schools respond consistently to comparable symbols of forms of expression,” the report said. Bell said it may be appropriate to discuss contemporary political issues in lessons but staff attire and classroom displays “carry institutional authority and may reasonably be subject to different expectations”. He also heard that political expression was “causing distress to Jewish students and staff within colleges”. Colleges are not bound by political impartiality legal duties that apply in schools, unless they teach 14 to 16-year-olds. Leaders must follow statutory duties to secure freedom of speech, equality and safeguarding for under 18-year-olds. Bell said he resisted calls for an outright ban on political symbols as it would be “impossible to implement” and not legally tested. He said colleges “may be justified” in placing proportionate restrictions on staff’s lawful political expression where necessary. Education secretary Lucy Powell said: “I accept his recommendation, but as education secretary, I am clear: I would not expect to see teachers coming to school or college wearing or displaying any political material.” David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “I totally agree that education needs to play a crucial role in prevention, and that teachers across all phases of education need practical tools and support on how to discuss antisemitism with students. “These tools cannot be one-size-fits-all, and there needs to be resources for both schools and colleges which are appropriate to students’ age, context and experience.” Hughes added: “We acknowledge the recommendations in the report aimed specifically at colleges, and we will engage with and support our members as they work through these, helping them to strengthen inclusion, foster positive relationships and ensure that all students and staff remain safe.” Ramping up training The review said colleges should address antisemitism during tutorial and pastoral time. It also recommended the Department for Education develop resources that properly address contemporary antisemitism and teach media literacy and online safety to help learners identify harmful online content. DfE will also commission an online training package for schools, college leaders and designated safeguarding leads and also a support service featuring an “expert advice network” to help navigate complex cases. Last year, DfE contracted a think tank and the Union for Jewish Students to develop staff scholarships to learn more about antisemitism. Only 9 per cent of professionals responding to the review’s call for evidence said they had been offered training focused specifically on antisemitism. Just 24 per cent said their institution used the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which colleges will now be encouraged to adopt. Bell also recommended colleges create a specific category for recording antisemitic incidents and support anonymous reporting. Unions in the spotlight The review also reported that some Jewish staff felt they could not rely on their union for support due to their campaigning on Israel-Palestine. The National Education Union came under fire earlier this year, after members prevented Jewish MP Damien Egan from visiting a school in Bristol because of his pro-Israel view. Bell concluded that he did not believe any education union was “inherently antisemitic” but advised unions to strengthen their policies and train members on discrimination and antisemitism. But shadow education secretary Laura Trott criticised the recommendation. “Asking them to examine their own actions is allowing them to mark their own homework, and we already know that this doesn’t work,” Trott said. “Without accountability, nothing changes,” she added. Recommendations in full Here are all the 27 recommendations accepted by the government, in full… Recommendation 1 The Secretary of State for Education should encourage all schools and colleges to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Recommendation 2 The Department for Education should ensure that school and college leaders, staff and trainee teachers receive training in understanding antisemitism. To enable this: The Department for Education should commission the preparation of a dedicated training package on antisemitism for school and college leaders and designated safeguarding leads (DSLs). The Department for Education should encourage school and college leaders to integrate understanding of antisemitism within safeguarding, equalities, and anti-racism training. This should encompass all staff and others working in schools and colleges, including support staff, governors, academy members and trustees. The Department for Education should ensure teachers have a good understanding of antisemitism delivered through initial teacher training and the early career framework for schools and initial teacher training for further education teachers Recommendation 3 The Department for Education should strengthen Keeping children safe in education to make clear that racism and prejudice, including antisemitism, may constitute harm. The guidance should make clear that early identification, challenge and intervention are important safeguarding responses, where appropriate. Recommendation 4 Schools’ and colleges’ online safety policies, safeguarding policies, and associated staff training should ensure that staff are appropriately informed about the nature and risks of harmful antisemitic content that children and young people may encounter online. Recommendation 5 The Department for Education should update the behaviour and preventing bullying guidance for schools to include advice on identifying, preventing and responding to antisemitism and other forms of hatred and prejudice, including setting out expected standards of support and good practice for victims of abuse. Recommendation 6 College leaders should consider if their behaviour policy and student code of conduct includes steps to identify, prevent and respond to antisemitic and other forms of abuse, harassment and intimidation. Recommendation 7 Schools and colleges should establish clear and accessible systems for reporting, recording and monitoring antisemitic incidents. To enable this: Schools and colleges should support peer reporting and anonymous disclosures, and signpost learners to information about available support services (such as Community Security Trust) Schools and colleges recording systems should include a specific category for antisemitic incidents, including the nature and type of incident, involving identifiable victims as well as wider manifestations of antisemitism. Recommendation 8 The Home Office should work with the Department for Education to expand Prevent advice for schools and colleges, to provide clarity and support decision making on when antisemitism, and other themes relevant to extremist narratives, may be indicators of radicalisation risk. Recommendation 9 The Office for Equality and Opportunity should launch a cross-sector awareness campaign to reinforce Public Sector Equality Duty responsibilities with respect to Jewish identity, as both a race and religion, so that it is fully recognised within school and college policies and processes to meet equality and safeguarding duties. Recommendation 10 The Department for Education should produce, in partnership with relevant stakeholders, good practice guidance to support school and college leaders in developing a coherent and sequenced approach to tackling antisemitism. This should include curriculum content and wider educational opportunities that support understanding of historical and contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, alongside the policies, processes and support needed to ensure a whole-institution response. Recommendation 11 The Department for Education should strengthen the national approach to Holocaust education, underpinned by evidence and clear expectations, to ensure all pupils develop a secure understanding of the Holocaust, including the role of antisemitism within it. To enable this: The Department for Education should commission an evidence-informed review of the effectiveness of Holocaust education to understand better how pupils encounter and make sense of the Holocaust, identify effective practice and areas for improvement, and inform future guidance and support for schools. The Department for Education should ensure that the purpose of, and expectations for, Holocaust education are clearly articulated and consistently supported through non-statutory guidance, including understanding antisemitism as a central explanatory factor in explaining the Holocaust. All schools and colleges should mark Holocaust Memorial Day, supported by secure historical understanding and linked to wider educational provision. Recommendation 12 The Department for Education, schools and colleges should address antisemitism through appropriate places in the curriculum, tutorial time and pastoral provision. To enable this: The Department for Education should ensure that citizenship education has sufficient opportunity to address contemporary antisemitism, alongside other forms of hatred and prejudice, within a coherent programme of learning. The Department for Education should ensure schools and colleges embed high-quality teaching on media literacy and online safety, helping learners to recognise and confront harmful online content, including antisemitism and conspiracy theories. Schools and colleges should make effective use of tutorial time, pastoral provision and wider learning opportunities to address contemporary antisemitism alongside other forms of hatred and prejudice. The Department for Education should develop, quality assure and publish practical resources and tools to support schools, colleges, academy trusts, college groups, and/or local authorities in addressing antisemitism and wider hatred and social cohesion issues. These resources should include guidance and materials to help all staff discuss controversial issues and respond to significant global events, particularly those relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict and contemporary antisemitism. Recommendation 13 The Department for Education should ensure that Judaism is represented with appropriate depth and coherence within the proposed curriculum framework for religious education. The aims for the subject should reflect Judaism as a diverse and contemporary tradition, so that where antisemitism is addressed, it is grounded in a secure knowledge of Jewish life, belief, culture and community. Recommendation 14 The Department for Education, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government should promote and enable opportunities for schools and colleges to engage with Jewish communities and contemporary Jewish life through social mixing, enrichment and cultural engagement. Recommendation 15 The Department for Education should ensure that professionals working in schools or colleges are clear that antisemitism and other forms of prejudice and hatred are forms of discrimination that are incompatible with professional conduct. To support this: The Department for Education should amend Part One of the Teachers’ Standards to enhance expectations on teachers to manage pupil behaviour includes a requirement to challenge prejudice and hate-based behaviour, including antisemitism. The Department for Education should amend Part Two of the Teachers’ Standards to ensure antisemitic, racist and other discriminatory behaviour is incompatible with professional conduct, within and outside the school, including online. Schools and colleges should ensure their staff code of conduct specifies that antisemitic, and other forms of religious and racial harassment, abuse and discrimination, are incompatible with professional conduct. Recommendation 16 School and college leaders should consider the appropriateness of political expression and identifiers in their respective settings, considering the time place and manner alongside their respective legal duties. To enable this: School leaders should carefully consider the time, place, and manner of political expression (including in relation to staff dress codes and pupil uniform policies), ensuring that the wearing or displaying of political symbols, flags, or slogans, and the expression of political views, are compliant with their legal duties in relation to political impartiality, whilst being mindful of promoting respectful dialogue, inclusion and engagement. College leaders should consider setting out how they will approach the wearing or displaying of political identifiers by staff, balancing their duties relating to safeguarding, equality and freedom of speech, with the need to ensure that all students can engage effectively in their education and that the welfare of students under 18 is protected. Recommendation 17 The Department for Education should strengthen guidance for schools on political impartiality to provide clear examples that illustrate how it should be applied in practice, particularly in relation to contemporary and sensitive geopolitical topics. Recommendation 18 School and college employers should have a robust reporting, escalation and response to antisemitic abuse, bullying, harassment or discrimination against staff and, where relevant, governors and trustees. All incidents against staff, including those involving pupils, students, parents, colleagues or third parties, should be identified, recorded, investigated and addressed promptly and appropriately. Recommendation 19 Education unions should have robust policies and processes to tackle antisemitism and ensure members are sufficiently trained in understanding, recognising and responding to antisemitism. Any incidents of alleged antisemitism by trade union officials, representatives or members must be consistently addressed in line with union policies to tackle racism or prejudice. Recommendation 20 The Department for Education should establish a dedicated support service to help schools, colleges and local authorities manage complex incidents related to antisemitism and other forms of prejudice and hatred. To enable this: The Department for Education should establish a well-defined and well publicised ‘front door’ for support The Department for Education should establish a network of peer-topeer advisers (at local authority or at school/college leader level, as appropriate) to provide rapid, expert support. Recommendation 21 The Home Office should utilise some of the £250 million recently announced by the Home Secretary for additional security support for Jewish communities to help ensure that Jewish schools and colleges can undertake educational visits safely, alongside meeting wider security needs. Recommendation 22 The Department for Transport should deliver a joint communications campaign with relevant stakeholders to deter antisemitic behaviour, with campaign activity strategically placed at transport hubs near Jewish schools and colleges and accompanied by an evaluation to assess impact and inform future activity. Recommendation 23 The Department for Education should work in partnership with relevant organisations and community stakeholders to ensure that Jewish school and college leaders have access to comprehensive support, specialist advice on security and safeguarding risks, opportunities to participate in professional networks for sharing good practice, and leadership support and mentoring. Recommendation 24 Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate should each build on existing training and professional development to support inspectors’ confidence in evaluating and reporting on how effectively leaders identify, manage and prevent incidents of antisemitism and other forms of racial and religious prejudice. Recommendation 25 The Department for Education should commission Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate, separately and within their respective remits, to undertake thematic work on how schools and colleges identify, prevent and respond to antisemitism and other forms of racism and religious prejudice, helping to build a stronger national picture and improve understanding of effective practice. Recommendation 26 Local authorities should, through existing responsibilities, partnerships and local intelligence arrangements, work with safeguarding partners and other relevant agencies to strengthen local visibility of patterns of antisemitism and other forms of hatred and prejudice affecting children and young people, and to support schools and colleges in responding effectively where concerns arise. Recommendation 27 Ofsted should consider, as it develops its academy trust inspection framework, how trust-level oversight of responses to antisemitism and other forms of hatred and prejudice can be reflected proportionately, particularly where concerns are serious, repeated, or evident across more than one school.