Race
The NEU is committed to challenging racism in all its forms and to campaigning for the rights for all our members and students. We work to influence policies at school, local and national levels relating to both working conditions and rights for our members and for the young people we work with. We work with other unions and organisations who share our aims.
The NEU uses the term ‘Black’ to refer to all members of Black and Minority Ethnic communities. We have a reserved National Executive seat elected by the members of the NEU who register as Black on our database.
There is an annual Black Educators Conference which currently takes place over a weekend in November and which is open to any Black member to apply. Camden NEU is also keen to increase the involvement and activity of Black members in the work of the Union. If you would like to be more involved or require some advice or information, please contact our Equalities officer Lucie Scott
Key points to think about with colleagues:
Often, we do not immediately recognise racial inequalities, or understand institutional racism because incidents are not necessarily overt or recognised as part of a pattern.
The aim should be to explore the patterns of racism and not use a deficit model (such as ‘close the gap’) where solutions are targeted at changing the individual student or group.
Black staff and pupils are not homogenous groups. All staff and pupils have identities which are unique to them. These identities include our ethnicity, but also our gender, sex, sexuality, disability, class and religion or belief. There are also differences in the way that different groups of Black staff or pupils are treated.
The responsibility and expectation of challenging racism should not fall to Black staff or pupils, but they have a unique perspective and have a particular understanding and expertise about exclusionary practices and policies. Their viewpoints and experiences should be considered closely.
This framework has been designed to help you explore ideas around race equality and plan how to tackle racism with children, young people and staff.
It offers discussion starters in your workplace to help:
Empower Black staff and pupils to explore and express what matters to them.
Support young people’s right to speak out and engage as active citizens with the issues around racism that they care about.
Challenge racial inequalities and oppressive racial norms and assumptions.

Racism excludes
Research literature has shown that young people who are excluded from school are at far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes, including poor educational attainment, prolonged periods out of employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness.
Currently, black Caribbean pupils are permanently excluded from school at three times the rate of white British pupils. This document explores these outcomes and how, as educators, we can be more aware of the ways that we can assist these children and help to improve their life chances.
