General Article Half of secondary heads seek police help on violent extremism

Topic Selected: Terrorism
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By Kerra Maddern

Almost half of all secondary school headteachers have contacted the police for advice on combating violent extremism, according to new Government-commissioned research.

A quarter of primary heads have asked officers for help, with this figure rising to one in three among those working in London, according to the Ipsos MORI survey of 804 schools.

Department for Education (DfE) officials ordered the study to find out if schools are obeying the new duty to promote community cohesion. Researchers were also asked to find out how many schools were engaged in the Home Office’s counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent.

According to the study, the police are not the only port of call. Three-quarters of headteachers overall have requested some kind of help to prevent violent extremism among their pupils.

Other widely-used sources of information are DfE guidance (48 per cent of schools), local authority guidance (32 per cent) and the media (30 per cent).

Heads in richer areas...

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