A project helping schools to teach about how to challenge racism is playing a key role in the Welsh Government’s aim to being an anti-racist nation by 2030.

Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed, in Newport, is one of the schools taking part in the Diversity and Anti-racist Professional Learning project and a refresh of the plan has been launched.

The school has benefited from the project with teachers and learners developing a deeper understanding of racism and what it means to be an anti-racist school.

It has introduced a pupil-led audit which includes an action plan to address racism and it has encouraged activities across all subject areas including food tasting and assemblies as part of anti-racism week.

The action plan was launched by the Welsh Government in 2022 to address and eliminate systemic racism and racial inequalities in Wales.

It has now been refreshed to reflect the progress made over the past two years and to address any challenges encountered. The refreshment was shaped by feedback from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people about the issues that affect them.

Deputy headteacher at Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed, who leads on the DARPL initiative, Abigail Williams said: “As a school we have developed an understanding of institutional racism and what it means to be an anti-racist school.

"We are creating a genuinely anti-racist setting where learners feel safe to disclose, where they have the confidence that they will be listened to and believed so that their daily experience is a better one.” 

Cabinet secretary for social justice Jane Hutt said: “We have made progress in several areas since the plan was launched in 2022, and the Diversity and Anti-racist Professional Learning project is an excellent example of this, but we also know we have a long way to go in achieving our goals.

“We cannot do this alone. Everyone, right across Wales, has an important role to play. Working together we can embed anti-racism in everything we do, to create a truly anti-racist Wales, a Wales in which we can all be proud to belong, and in which each of us can thrive.”