Anti-Racism Policy

Scope of Policy

North Ealing Primary School (NEPS) is a UNICEF Rights Respecting School which upholds the rights of the child and the inherent right of equality without discrimination. NEPS will not tolerate any form of racism and is committed to an anti-racist ethos. Our aim is to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and to promote equal opportunities, good race relations in all areas of school life and consistency of approach (whether online or offline). This anti-racist policy and practice help to identify, challenge and change those attitudes which lead to negative discrimination against people on the basis of their race, colour, nationality, culture, language or religion.

The policy aims to ensure that:

• Governors and staff, children and parents and carers have an understanding of what a racist incident is.
• Governors and staff know what the school policy is on tackling and preventing racism and dealing with it if it occurs.
• Children and parents & carers know what the school policy is on racism, and what they should do if a racist event occurs, what they can expect of the school in dealing with racism and what the school is doing to prevent racist incidents.
• Bullying and prejudice-based language of any kind, involving children, adults, staff or parents is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at our school.
• All children have the right to learn in an environment where they feel safe, happy and able to express how they feel.
• Preventing and tackling racism is part of the school’s approach to promoting good behaviour and is supported by our commitment to providing a caring, friendly, respectful and safe learning environment for all of our children where the values of equity, justice, inclusion, voice, respect and wellbeing are taught.
• We promote an inclusive ethos that focuses on respecting one another and celebrating difference and diversity, where racism is never acceptable.
• Preventing and tackling racial incidents is part of our work to support children’s’ social and emotional development and positive mental health, and so that we can be recognised as a healthy school.
• Ensuring existing school policies address inappropriate behaviour around racism and other discriminatory practices.
• Recording and reporting racist incidents to the appropriate authorities both internal and external to the school, in order to endeavour to eradicate such behaviour.

Definition of Racism

Our definition of racism is based on:
The Equality Act 2010 which offers protection from discrimination on the grounds of skin colour, nationality or ethnic origins. The Equality Act 2010 also prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief.

The Macpherson Report: ‘Conduct or words which advantage or disadvantage people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.’

Racism is when a person is treated worse, excluded, disadvantaged, harassed, bullied, humiliated or degraded because of skin colour, nationality, culture or ethnic origins.

We recognise that racism can include:

● Racial Harassment
● Physical assault
● Derogatory name-calling, banter, insults and racist jokes
● Racist graffiti
● Wearing racist badges
● Carrying or distributing racist material such as leaflet comics or magazines
● Verbal and non-verbal abuse and threats
● Incitement of others to behave in a racist manner
● Racist comments in the course of discussion in lessons*
● Expressing prejudices or deliberate misinformation on racial, religious or ethnic distinctions
● Attempts to recruit for racial organisations or groups
● Writing or expressing provocative slogans or catchphrases
● Ridicule of an individual for cultural differences
● Refusal to cooperate with others because of their colour, ethnicity, religion or language
● Written derogatory remarks
● Accessing racist material on the Internet*

*unless part of a study of racism within curriculum

Racist Bullying

All racist incidents, including those which could be deemed to be racist bullying must be recorded. Where there is evidence that a number of individual racist incidents have been perpetrated against the same person, staff should be vigilant to the possibility that the individual could be experiencing the effect of bullying (i.e. a sense of powerlessness, isolation and distress). The steps taken to resolve alleged racist and bullying incidents are the same i.e. reviewing the situation and providing support to, and challenging the behaviour of, those involved.

We recognise the potential for children with SEND who might be disproportionately impacted by racial incidents without outwardly showing any signs.

Prevention

Our approach to preventing racism within our school involves direct teaching of racial literacy and racism, and the effects of, celebrating difference and diversity and promoting equality, inclusiveness and positive behaviour.

We do this through:

1. Whole school ethos and environment
2. Whole school activities
3. Curriculum
4. Training and support for staff
5. Involving children
6. Partnerships with parents, carersandcommunities

Whole School ethos:

● We aim to create a positive, safe and inclusive environment which values diversity.
● We have high expectations of children’s behaviour to show respect for each other and accept responsibility for their behaviour.
● Staff model positive behaviour and communication skills both with children and other adults in the school.
● We teach children the kind of behaviour we expect and reward good behaviour.
● Staff always challenge children when they use prejudice, biased and racist language, explaining why it is wrong and how hurtful it can be.
● We encourage children to tell an adult if they are worried or upset about anything.

Whole school activities:

● We have introduced restorative approaches for dealing with conflict – see relational behaviour policy
● We acknowledge Black History Month and support and promote national campaigns such as AntiBullying Week and WellBeing week.
● We have a specific focus on the role of bystanders and allyship and teach children that if they witness racism they should report it to a member of school staff
● We are a UNICEF Rights Respecting School which upholds the rights of the child.
● Articles 2 and 14 refer specifically to discriminatory behaviours and as duty bearers we identify racist behaviour as an infringement of children’s rights.
● We teach about equality and actively challenge racial stereotypes
● We promote equality through displays, stories and images.

Our Curriculum

Anti-racism and racial literacy is covered broadly in the curriculum, covering the statutory content and with a focus on:

● types of racism,
● the impact of racism, and how to report and get help
● healthy and unhealthy relationships,
● respect for difference,
● stereotyping and its consequences,
● prejudice and discrimination.

We have actively engaged in updating our curriculum so that children are exposed to diverse histories; we celebrate positive role models from varying fields, which reflect a wide range of ethnicities and cultures. This is done in conjunction with training and involvement of the Ealing race equality in education training programme (delivered by Ealing Learning Partnership). Our curriculum actively seeks to function as a mirror and a window: lessons and resources mirror children’s experiences back to them but also offer windows into the experiences of others*. Children develop a greater understanding of difference and diversity through their use of language, cultural attitudes and images, avoiding stereotypes and celebrating difference.

In Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural (SMSC), children learn:

● What a stereotype is, and how stereotypes can be unfair, negative or destructive.
● About different types of bullying (including cyberbullying and racist abuse), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult) and how to get help.
● The importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have different preferences or beliefs.
● That others’ families, either in school or in the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care.
● That the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-to-face relationships, including the importance of respect for others online including when we are anonymous.
● Practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships.
● That in school and in wider society they can expect to be treated with respect by others, and that in turn they should show due respect to others, including those in positions of authority.
● The importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness.
● The conventions of courtesy and manners.

Staff and governor training and support

All staff receive training from Ealing Learning Partnership (ELP) on all aspects of racism. This training forms part of our school induction plan.

NEPS has a staff race equality team which reviews and feeds into the training & anti-racist strategies, the curriculum and reporting of racist incidents.

We have termly safeguarding training which includes an update of this policy to ensure that staff know how to identify racism, what to do if it occurs and how to prevent it. We include all school staff, including support staff, site staff, office staff to ensure a consistent approach and also because children may disclose details of a racist incident to any member of staff.

All staff can:

● Recognise a racist incident.
● Respond appropriately when they witness a racist incident or one is reported to them.
● Understand the school’s policy and procedure and the need for consistency when dealing with incidents.

Involving children, parents and carers

We want all children to contribute to the development of the school’s approach to tackling and preventing racism, including when they might be bystanders.

We involve children through school council, pupil voice and through feedback on the development of anti-racist resources and lessons.

We believe that parents and carers have a crucial role in supporting the school’s anti-racist policy and in actively encouraging their child to be a positive member of the school.

We run parent and carers forums to discuss and feed into elements of policy, curriculum, behaviour, culture and language.

We have an annual school survey for parents and carers and children which includes questions about how well they think the school is doing.
We aim to ensure that all children, parents and carers:

• Understand that the school is opposed to any form of bullying or harassment including racism or racial harassment.
• Know how the racial incident procedure works and are encouraged to use it without fear of victimisation.
• Understand that all racially motivated incidents are recorded and reported and that serious incidents are reported to the police.
• Know what appropriate sanctions and support are available.

Recording and reporting racist incidents

Any report or allegation of a potentially racist incident require an investigation even if it is found to have been unsubstantiated. While some investigations will be very simple, others may require witness statements or other supporting documentation. This information will be recorded on our online reporting platform, MyConcern.

In all cases:

• Records relating to racist incidents will be treated as highly confidential and must be uploaded by the relevant member of staff to MyConcern.
• If there is a detailed investigation (e.g. including witness statements), records of the investigation should be uploaded on to MyConcern.
• Analysis of MyConcern will enable us to learn from particular incidents, highlight trends and monitor progress.
• Any summary of incidents or monitoring reports produced by the school and shared with governors, leadership team, staff or the wider school community must not disclose the identity of any individuals involved in racist incidents.
• We will investigate and act upon any racist incident that is reported to school staff promptly, whether taking place at school or outside of school e.g. online, on public transport, outside local shops. We will also consider whether it is appropriate to notify the police of the incident.
• We will communicate with parents/carers of all children involved regularly throughout the investigations.

What will we do if we know a racist incident has been reported?

A consistent approach will be taken throughout the school to deal with racism and investigate all reports.

We will:

● Identify a senior member of staff to investigate the incident thoroughly.
● Support the child and talk with them about what has happened and what they would like to happen.
● Investigate the incident and talk to each child involved including bystanders, separately to find out what has been happening and why.
● Tell the parents/carers involved and keep them informed of how the incident is being dealt with and whether the racism has stopped.
● Talk with others who have been bystanders to the racism about how they could stop this behaviour in the future and how they can be an ally.
● Keep the situation under regular review to ensure that and harassment, abuse or victimisation has stopped and that the victim feels safe.
● Record the incident, actions and follow up on MyConcern.
● Ensure support for the victim and/or the alleged perpetrator.
● Consider any curriculum implication including the need for a school assembly or lessons, changes to the Relational Behaviour policy or any other policies.
● Consider updates to staff training materials.
● Consider if there is a child protection issue in this case (safeguarding lead
● Consider seeking advice from the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

Data on racist incidents are reported to governors each term, including numbers of incidents, types of incident and a summary of how they have been resolved.

What will happen to the children who have been bullied?

We will:

● Take appropriate action to offer support to the victim.
● Meet with the child’s parent(s)/guardian/carer to discuss the matter and explain the action taken. An interpreter/translator may be needed at the meetings.
● Reinforce the school’s commitment to tackling racist incidents.

What will happen to the child who has been bullying (perpetrator)?

We will:

● Ensure an appropriate member of staff should intervene and take immediate action, for example, separating the victim(s) from the perpetrator(s).
● Ensure any racist behaviour is challenged immediately. The perpetrator should be told that their behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
● Take appropriate action to support, educate and monitor the behaviour of the perpetrator to ensure that the racist behaviour will not be repeated.
● Report the incident to a senior member of staff who should decide whether any further action needs to be taken, including notifying the police and informing the parent(s)/guardian/carer of the relevant child(ren) of any investigation and the outcome.
● Ensure the Headteacher should consider the use of a full range of sanctions including the use of fixed term or permanent exclusion.
● Discuss the incident with the alleged perpetrator’s parent(s)/guardian/carer (if appropriate) and reinforce the school’s commitment to tackling racial incidents.
● Spend time talking to the child to try to find out if there are underlying reasons for their behaviour and if they could benefit from support or interventions to help them manage their behaviour and/or develop their personal and social skills.
● Use appropriate approaches e.g. restorative approaches which hold the child accountable for their actions and deter them from further racist behaviour.
● Use formal sanctions, such as keeping them in at lunchtimes. The sanction used will depend on the severity and persistence of the racist behaviour and is explained in our Relational Behaviour Policy under persistent inappropriate behaviour. Where appropriate we will also impose further sanctions, such as exclusion.
● We will also reinforce to all children that racist behaviour is wrong and unacceptable and offer support to those who have been affected.

School Responsibilities

The Headteacher will:

● Have overall responsibility to ensure the effective implementation of the school’s antiracist strategy.

The Headteacher and members of staff responsible for anti-racism will:

● Ensure that the policy is implemented and reviewed regularly.
● Provide a termly report of incidents of racism to the governing body.
● Monitor bullying and harassment of children in terms of difference and diversity (i.e. different groups) and take action if there is a cause for concern.
● Provide a report on the effectiveness of the anti-racist policy.
● Ensure the policy is annually reviewed and disseminated to the whole school community and the message that racism is not accepted is reinforced through whole school activities and information.
● Ensure that all staff receive sufficient training to be equipped to identify and deal with racist incidents.
● Regularly review the policy in the light of any incident.
● Include regular updates to staff through the annual safeguarding training.
● Include information in the newsletter/on the website about what the school is doing to prevent and tackle racism.

The Governing Body will:

● Support the Headteacher in all attempts to eliminate racism from our school as part of their safeguarding responsibility.
● Require the Headteacher to keep accurate records of all incidents of racism and report on them to the governing body on a termly basis.
● Require the Headteacher to report annually to the governors about the effectiveness of school strategies.
● Require the Headteacher to review and keep up to date the anti-racist policy.
● Notify the Headteacher of any request from a parent/carer to investigate incidents of racism.

SLT will:

● Support the child who has been subject to racism.
● Take statements from all the children involved, including any bystanders.
● Communicate with parents and keep them updated throughout the investigation.
● Issue sanctions and conduct restorative justice* meetings in order to prevent further incidents.
● Discuss the incident with relevant staff to identify any further support needs for the children involved-both the child who has been the victim and the child who has committed the racist incident.
● Monitor the situation to ensure the racism has stopped.
● Gather feedback from those involved about how the incident was dealt with.

All members of staff will:

● Record and report all incidents of racism quickly.
● Listen to the concerns of children.
● Be vigilant around the school.
● Role model healthy and respectful relationships.
● Promote equality and deal effectively with any prejudiced-based language.

Racism outside school premises

● Headteachers have a specific statutory power to discipline children for poor behaviour when they are outside of the school premises and not under the lawful control or charge of a member of school staff Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. This could relate to racist incidents occurring anywhere off the school premises, such as on school or public transport or outside local shops.
● The school should be informed of racist incidents that have happened within our school setting/community which may have an impact on our school community. These include incidents that are face or online.
● Where racism outside school is reported to school staff, it should be investigated and acted on. The Headteacher should also consider whether it is appropriate to notify the police or local authority.
● If the misbehaviour could be criminal or poses a serious threat to a member of the public, police should always be informed.

Incident timings

Support for children and parents/carers

Advice to parents

If you or your child is a victim of racism, within our school setting/community, report it.

Advice to children

● If you are a victim of racism (whether in or outside of school), it is very important to tell somebody you trust. You can tell a member of staff or anyone you want to talk to.
● If you cannot tell anyone at school, you can tell your parents who will tell us.
● You can also email, text and have an online chat with a counsellor at Childline. 
● Friends of those targeted by racism should tell staff or a parent.
● Nobody deserves to be racially mistreated, remember, you have a right for this not to happen to you and it is not weak to tell someone.

Advice to bystanders

● Do not ignore or support racist behaviour if you see it happening to someone else. If you do see someone being treated in a racist way please:
● Do not join in even if you feel pressured to do so.
● Tell a member of staff what you have seen.
● Tell your parents or carers or someone else you trust.
● If you feel safe to do so, tell the perpetrators they should stop.
● If you are not sure what you should do, you could call Childline which is a confidential advice service for children. The number is: 0800 1111.
● You can also email, text and have an online chat with a counsellor at Childline.

If you are bullying someone

● Stop.
● Talk to someone about what you are doing and ask for help to understand and change your behaviour – and to find out how you can apologise and make amends to the person you’ve been bullying.
● If you are not sure what to do, you could call Childline which is a confidential advice service for children. The number is: 0800 1111. You can also email, text and have an online chat with a counsellor at Childline. They won’t judge you and they understand that there are often many reasons why children and young people bully others, sometimes because they themselves have been bullied.

Links to other policies

This policy is part of promoting good behaviour in school and links to our:

• Relational Behaviour Policy
• PSHE Policy
• SMSC Policy
• Safeguarding Policy
• Child Protection Policy
• Anti-Bullying Policy
• Equality Policy
• Online Safety Policy.

Glossary

Allyship
– the status or role of a person who advocates and actively works for the inclusion of a marginalised or politicised group in all areas of society, not as a member of that group but in solidarity with its struggle and point of view and under its leadership.

Anti-racism
– being active in challenging racism within all areas of society.

Prejudice
– preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

Racial literacy
– the knowledge, skills, and awareness needed to talk thoughtfully about race and racism; this naturally includes having a rich vocabulary including terms such as race, racism, prejudice, ally and so on. The ability to identify someone being treated unfairly because of their identity.

Racism
– is when a person is treated worse, excluded, disadvantaged, harassed, bullied, humiliated or degraded because of skin colour, nationality, culture or ethnic origins.

Restorative approaches
– Restorative practice is a way of working with conflict that puts the focus on repairing the harm that has been done. It is an approach to conflict resolution that includes all of the parties involved. Restorative approaches enable those who have been harmed to convey the impact of the harm to those responsible, and for those responsible to acknowledge this impact and take steps to put it right

Policy to be approved by – Governors
October 2024
Policy / Document due for review
October 2026