The ‘Prevent Strategy’ published by the government in 2011 is a strategy designed to prevent any kind of extremist or terrorist activity from occurring in any community. In the report, 25 areas of the country were highlighted as areas in which such activity was likely to be present. One of those areas was Tower Hamlets, alongside several other east London boroughs including Lewisham, Newham and Barking and Dagenham.

At Mulberry School for Girls, although we know we need to be constantly vigilant and to eschew complacency, we have always been regarded as having good practice in preventing extremism. We have constantly worked together with families, governors and the local community to protect our pupils from the effects of different kinds of extremist behaviour, including the EDL or groups which sympathise with terrorism. In 2008, the school and its staff were involved in advising the government on how best to approach community cohesion and the policy approach to preventing extremism. We had a visit from central government to discuss our approach and Deborah Weston, former Director of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development became a key adviser until the 2011 strategy was published.

Read the Prevent Strategy at Mulberry School for Girls on our Policy Documents page.