BAME

ANTI RACISM NETWORK

Events in the last couple of weeks, such as the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter demonstrations, have caused a heightened focus and interest in the topic of anti-racism across the world and in the UK. These events have refreshed enthusiasm for change and in Haringey, 130 people joined a local NEU Zoom meeting to discuss the anti-racist curriculum. We believe it is necessary to take this opportunity to provoke meaningful change now in the institutions in which we teach and work. Our community of staff working in schools is no stranger to the ways in which inequality, prejudice and generations of colonial education affect the lives of BAME students and members of staff, and thus it is our duty to draw attention to this, oppose it and counter it by creating more progressive alternatives. As Angela Davis said, ‘In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.’ We know that racism exists beyond the curriculum and is pervasive in many other areas of school life including behaviour management, career progression, parental relations, etc. It is crucial that we set the wheels of motion now and make sure we keep our community accountable. To this end, we have put the following resources together to support NEU members and other allies, in calling their school/college to action.

Suggested Steps

1. Call a school meeting to discuss racism at your school setting as well as any approaches that staff are already taking to address this within their classrooms or their curriculums. Create a team that is willing to work with you on this and ensure that this team is representative of your school community and inviting to all voices and that these voices are listened to.
2. Send the letter (download sample) to the Head teacher/SLT team. Please edit this to fit with your school setting.
3. Work with the team to carry out the audit. We suggest that you use the HEP (Haringey Education Partnership) self-evaluation tool and the NEU Anti-Racism Framework in conjunction to carry out the audit.
4. After the audit is completed (ideally before the end of term), use it to inform an action plan that will guide the work of the team in the next academic year. We encourage you to share the action plan and audit results with Governors too.

Support Tools

• Haringey NEU Google Drive - https://tinyurl.com/y8ajtegx
• Haringey NEU Anti-Racist Education Network WhatsApp Group – https://chat.whatsapp.com/JjQmj1QGHufEqAruTl06QB