Whole school anti-racism audit

Reflect on how inclusive your school currently is for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff, pupils and parents, and take the first steps to improving it.

Last reviewed on 31 January 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 40681
Contents
  1. Download our whole school anti-racism audit tool
  2. Listen to your school community
  3. BAME – a note on terminology

Download our whole school anti-racism audit tool

If you’re committed to making your school more inclusive in the long term, this audit tool is a great place to start. Use the questions and prompts to get an idea of where you need to improve your school, along with what to do next.

Please note that this audit focuses on HR practices, leading on inclusivity, and representing the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people beyond the curriculum. For help with making diversity and anti-racism central to your curriculum, use our curriculum review tool.

Listen to your school community

The audit will give you an overview and some next steps, but you should tailor your approach by getting insights from members of your school community who are BAME.

To do this, you could:

  • Start a working group to get staff and parents' perspective on the gaps or weaknesses they see in your school's approach to anti-racism and inclusivity
  • Set up an anonymous box in your school, and encourage staff, parents and pupils to share their thoughts that way
  • Send an anonymous online survey to parents and staff (and pupils, depending on their age)
  • Track racist incidents in your school using your behaviour logs, to find out what the biggest problems are among pupils

Once you've gathered this information and completed your audit, you can begin to write your anti-racism action plan.

BAME – a note on terminology

We use BAME (black, Asian or minority ethnic) throughout this article and the audit tool as a succinct way to refer to the many ethnicities that are in a minority in England. However, we recognise that some people are not comfortable with the term.

When talking about this topic in your school we'd encourage you to think about what will work best in your own context (other widely-used terms include "ethnic minorities", "global majority" and "people of colour") – and note that individuals should always be referred to according to their own ethnicity, rather than grouped in this way.

Sources

Fitzgerald HR, who spoke to us about training staff on equality and diversity, reaching out to union representatives, and practising anonymous screening in your recruitment process.

Inclusion Labs, a non-profit organisation that helps schools be active and accountable in creating a more diverse and inclusive community, who spoke to us about using anonymous suggestion boxes and online surveys.

Sufian Sadiq, director of teaching school at Chiltern Learning Trust, who spoke to us about representing BAME experiences in your school beyond the curriculum.

Jack Sloan, headteacher at Hanover Primary School, who spoke to us about making a working group.

 

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