I’ve been to enrol my child in school, and they want me to fill in a form about our ethnicity!
Every school has a legal duty to make sure:
- no one suffers discrimination, is bullied or picked on.
- everyone has an equal chance
- children learn to understand and get on well with each other.
Romani Gypsies and Irish Travellers won important court cases to gain ethnic minority status, which means they (or solicitors representing them) can challenge schools who fail to keep to this Public Sector Equality Duty. If you identify your child as belonging to a protected ethnic group the school should protect their rights. This is the reason the school will ask about your ethnicity.
There are other important reasons why schools ask for this information. The first is to help them to understand your child better. If your child is from an ethnic minority it will assist the school to understand the ways in which families from different ethnic groups may behave differently, for example, attendance at weddings or funerals or travelling away from school for certain parts of the year. Or, possibly, why your child has missed periods of education in the past. Also, if the school knows the child’s ethnicity it can explain racism or bullying and allow the school to respond appropriately.
Another reason is, once the information is made anonymous, the school knows the numbers of children from different ethnic groups and can ensure that no single group is performing less well than others. Anonymous statistics allow schools, local authorities and government to analyse whether specific measures need to be put in place to improve the education system in particular ways for groups that share the same ethnicity.
Which ethnicity should I choose?
There are two ethnic categories that can identify your children – Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage.
Some families choose the equally accurate, White British, White Irish, White Eastern European, White European or White Other.
You are entitled to choose whatever category works best for you or your child. The school should tell you this; don’t feel you have to go along with any suggestions they might make. The information is confidential and should only be shared with members of staff who need to know. In Primary school parents make the choice; in Secondary the parents or the child can decide how they want to be identified.
I’m worried that if I say who we are my child will be bullied.
There are consequences whatever you choose. Yes, if you accurately record your child’s ethnicity it may result in racism or bullying, but the school has been informed and has a duty to tackle the issue. If you wish, you can talk to the school about openly celebrating your culture.
If you choose to hide your ethnicity your child will be constantly hiding information about who they really are. It may stop them developing strong and supportive friendships. Your child may feel that hiding in this way prevents them taking pride in their identity. If racism or bullying raises its ugly head and you report to school, they can rightly claim not to have known anything about it.