I’m a 46 year old man of mixed English-Irish/African-Caribbean heritage. I have 3 children, one of primary age and two of secondary age. All my children are neurodiverse, one with a diagnosis of ASD and an EHCP. I am relatively active in my local community – I was a school governor up until recently and also serve on the boards of two vital local community organisations in North Kensington/Ladbroke Grove.
The story I wanted to share relates to my time as a parent and governor at a primary school. The school is one of the nearest schools to Grenfell Tower in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and at the time of the situation I was involved in, the intake was around 85% “Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse” young people. You would think that a school with that intake and in that area of London, especially after what had recently happened at Grenfell, may be more sensitive and aware of issues to do with discrimination and racism, but sadly not.
Essentially, I stepped down from being a governor at the school in 2019 after 6 years as I felt my efforts to support reform in the governance at the school were not welcomed. After I stepped down I became aware of a racist incident at the school (the incident was one member of staff using the “n” word towards another member of staff) and the lack of appropriate action after this incident which resulted in the victim feeling the need to leave the school. I also found out that the perpetrator of the incident had previously taught my child, which in many ways made the impact even worse – someone who was comfortable using overt racist language teaching my own child. The school and the perpetrator accepted that this incident occurred, that is not in dispute.
When I became aware of the incident I reflected that had I done more as a governor to push for change and point out the systemic issues I had observed over several years within the school leadership, perhaps the incident may never have occurred in the first place.”
I decided that I should write a formal complaint to Ofsted, the local authority, and the school, outlining all of the issues I was aware of which had led to a culture of systemic racism being allowed to flourish.
My complaint included around 30 concrete examples of experiences, evidence or situations over several years that I alleged, together, proved a culture of institutional racism.
This complaint was first ignored and then deliberately misunderstood. It has resulted in 2 100 plus page “independent reviews” being commissioned by the school and local authority, and 2 independent appeal panels and is still inconclusive in its findings. The first independent review commissioned undertook a review of the governance of the school and made significant recommendations around areas that needed improvement, however it did not explicitly look at the issues of racism. The second review (after I appealed when the school tried to close the complaint after this governance review) did look into issues of institutional racism but in my view was conducted by a reviewer with no knowledge or genuine understanding of the issue and resulted in an unsatisfactory outcome. Along the way, I have become aware of advice given to the school by the local authority to effectively not respond to the issues of racism outlined in my complaint (the advice the school received when asking for advice on how to respond to my questions on racism was “do nothing”).
Personally I have been left exhausted and disappointed by the process. I have now escalated the issue to the DfE, who have told me that they are looking into the complaint however I am yet to get any kind of meaningful response from them after 6 months (my last contact with them was June 2024 when they said it was being looked in to).
I am a relatively confident person who has the time, skills and passion to battle against injustices such as those that I have observed but I have been thoroughly worn down by this process. It can be very isolating and you can be left feeling a bit crazy and on your own against systems that are meant to be there to support you. It is now 3 whole years since I first raised the complaint. I think part of the tactic of institutions is to draw things out so that people give up and move on. I certainly feel that way.
It is important to show those experiencing issues that they are not alone or crazy. What they are experiencing are ongoing systemic issues.
Firstly there needs to be genuine acceptance at leadership level of the root cause of many of the challenges that Black people experience. Once this acceptance is in place then the real work can begin. Until then, nothing will really change.
I moved my youngest to another primary school just before I became aware of the “trigger” incident I describe above. It isn’t perfect but unlike the previous school this school is taking pro-active steps to be anti-racist. They have detailed action plans in place and have taken the most important step of all – acknowledging that there is an issue in the first place.
There have been changes in the school I complained to. I am sure they would not acknowledge that these changes are as a result of my complaint but it is obvious that they are. However, the difference is, that they do not accept the idea of institutional racism existing within their school. If you don’t accept an issue exists, how can you begin to address it properly?
