Jaime Smith, Director of the Schools Division at the Anna Freud Centre
Since the 2020 murder of George Floyd in the United States, conversations about social injustices relating to race have become widespread across society. Discussions across the education sector have started to consider the role that schools can play in relation to anti-racist work.
With so many additional responsibilities already placed on schools, why is developing an anti-racist culture something that schools need to take on? The answer is two-fold. Firstly, school leaders and teachers play a vital role in shaping and nurturing young people as they grow, helping them develop into responsible, caring adults who treat those around them with respect.
Secondly, existing research, and the lived experience of young people, shows us that racism has a significant impact on mental health. Research shows that young Black people experiencing racial discrimination are likely to experience low self-esteem, and high levels of anxiety and depression. In a survey we conducted with young people in 2021, 88% told us that racism affects mental health ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’.
Unfortunately, experiencing racism at school is not uncommon. One survey from Mind found that 55% of young people from Black and British backgrounds, and 57% of young people from Mixed ethnic backgrounds, had experienced racism at school. 70% of these young people said this had affected their mental health.
Schools have a statutory responsibility to support the mental health of their students. At the Anna Freud Centre, we have always maintained that the best way to do this is to take a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing – and we believe that anti-racism needs to be considered as part of this whole-school approach.
The Anna Freud Centre has created a set of 10 resources to help school staff improve their knowledge of racism and its impact on mental health, and to support them working towards creating an anti-racist culture in their school. The resources are all completely free and available to download here.
Introducing a whole-school approach to anti-racism and mental health may require a culture change across the school community; and this in turn requires strong leadership and the commitment of everyone.
School policies
One way that leadership can make a clear commitment to anti-racism, and influence change across the whole school community, is through school policies. School leaders with the support of governors should consider drafting a specific anti-racism policy for the school, as well as reviewing existing policies with an anti-racist lens.
An anti-racism policy can be a way for schools to lay out their commitment to being an anti-racist organisation, detailing what the school is doing to tackle racism and to develop an anti-racist culture, and stating objectives for the future. It should also include processes for recording and monitoring racist incidents.
The Anna Freud Centre has created a resource to guide you through the process of writing an anti-racism policy.
Additionally, reviewing your existing school policies with an anti-racist lens can help you to improve them by making them fair and equitable to all members of the school community. Some existing policies may have elements that could be causing racial discrimination or inequity, that may not have been noticed previously. For example, a school uniform policy that prohibits certain types of hairstyles and headwear.
Find out more about how to review your policies, and who to involve in the process, in this Anna Freud Centre resource.
Leading change
Anti-racism should be thought of as a continuous process of learning and un-learning for educators; it is not a tick box exercise. School leaders can demonstrate their commitment in this area by working to develop their own knowledge around race and racism, and support their staff to do the same.
A school that is working to become anti-racist and support student mental health will have an open, supportive culture; it will be a school in which staff are encouraged to improve their own knowledge on these issues, learn from each other and from students, and be curious and open-minded. Becoming anti-racist does not mean we will ever have all the answers, but we will have a willingness to listen, learn and grow together as a whole-school community.
To find out more about the Anna Freud Centre’s work in schools, visit annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
