East London primary school head apologises for slave dress letter

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/17/east-london-primary-school-head-apologises-for-slave-dress-letter

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Unauthorised letter to parents asked them to send pupils in dressed in ‘dirty and worn-out’ clothes as part of Black History Month

Sally Weale Education correspondent

Tue 17 Oct 2017 18.05 BST

Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 15.18 GMT

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The headteacher of a primary school has apologised after an unauthorised letter was sent to parents suggesting children should come to school dressed as slaves as part of Black History Month celebrations.

Parents and carers of pupils in a class at St Winefride’s Catholic primary school in Newham, east London, were asked to send children dressed in “dirty and worn-out” clothes for a special assembly.

According to a local newspaper, the Newham Recorder, the letter said: “It might be an idea to not wash these clothes and stain them with tea or coffee to look more authentic.” It suggested that girls could wear straw hats or cloth head-wraps as part and boys straw hats or berets.

One parent, speaking to the Recorder, said: “You wouldn’t ask Jewish children to come in and re-enact the Holocaust.” She defended the school, however, saying the letter was “rogue” rather than representative of the school’s approach and added that there had been a wide range of Black History Month events.

The school’s headteacher, Paul Underwood, was unavailable for comment but, writing on the school website on Tuesday, he apologised for the letter which was sent to parents of pupils in one class without approval from the senior leadership.

“I have today issued a letter to 2N parents regarding the revised Black History Month presentation,” he wrote. “Once again, I apologise on behalf of the school for Friday’s unauthorised letter and the offence caused.”

A spokeswoman for the school told the Recorder: “We have written to those who received the letter to apologise and we have also spoken to the members of staff involved and taken steps to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.

“We understand the importance of Black History Month and celebrate this by studying the success and achievements of black role models. The content of this letter is not in keeping with the ethos of the school or a reflection of how the school celebrates Black History Month.”

Other Black History Month plans detailed on the school website included professional storyteller Wendy Shearer, African drumming workshops and “the Great Black History Month Bake Off or GBHMBO for short”.

A school in Kent was criticised in July after pupils were given a worksheet in which they were asked to imagine buying slaves at an auction as part of a history project. The year 8 students at Rochester grammar school (RGS) were asked to examine the characteristics of slaves listed as 16 lots and were told to choose the best slaves to suit their business with a budget of £100.

At the time Kehinde Andrews, an associate professor in sociology at Birmingham City University, specialising in race and racism, said: “If this is how black history is taught in schools, then it is better they do not teach it at all. The levels of insensitivity just tell us how lightly the genocide of African people is viewed in the school system.”