Racism at primary school (shocked)

[mumoftwoplus1]

Hi

I doubt this is the right place to put this but I have no idea where else to?

My 10 year old DS has a boy in his class who keeps telling racist jokes they're not actually jokes, just disgusting views being spouted which he clearly hears at home, but that's how DS worded it.

We often have anti racism conversations in this house so when this boy starts speaking like this (I can't even repeat what he said-it's pretty horrific) my DS feels very uncomfortable and has came to the decision he no longer wants to be friends with this boy. However that's easier said than done as he sits beside him in class, always tries to play with my DS at break/lunch time etc and my DS being 10 years old doesn't
feel equipped to be very outright and say I don't want to talk to you because of x, y and z.

Should I call the school to alert them to what's being said? I know it isn't the teachers responsibility necessarily deal with this but I can't just let it slide and go unknown either. I have no idea what the schools stance on anti racism is or if it's even included in the curriculum but I feel some massive intervention is needed here!

WWYD?

Racist not Ravi stuff

Tell the school and ask for your child to be moved seats

I would of flagged this to the teacher straight away OP why didn’t you?

In the primary school where I do some p/t work, we don't have a racist incidents book. However, anything of that nature is recorded on their online safeguarding system, which I imagine serves the same purpose.

I've had a good conversation with DS's teacher about this. She was horrified. She will pass the information onto the head teacher who will take necessary action (although I'm not sure what that is - I'll probably follow up with an email as I'm really keen to hear how exactly they will deal with this!) and the teacher will do a talk with the whole class about racism.

Had another really good conversation with DC about calling this boy out on his comments, he feels really angry that this boy thinks this way and will ask him why he's so racist if/when he says these things again

I'm so very proud of him

Tell the school. What happens on their premises IS their responsibility and they have a legal obligation regarding discrimination.

you are easily shocked! This is endemic

I think you need to inform the governors as well as the head.

School can't and won't be able to tell you what the "necessary action" is so there's no point sending a follow up email. All they will say is it's been/being dealt with

I have no idea what the schools stance on anti racism is

Get a copy of their equality policy. It's almost certainly available via their website, but if not you could ask the office to send a copy.

My 14 year old son recently experienced his friends making not only racist remarks but homophobic ones too. He reported them directly to the Head Teacher! He said he would rather not be friends with people with those views.

He did lose his close friends as a result but says that if that's what they're like then they weren't decent friends anyway.

The racism at primary school that really annoys me is the covert kind.
The nice middle class racism. Coded and dished out with a smile.

Eg why does someone move from a house which is on the doorstep of an outstanding primary school (but with an ethnically diverse intake) half way across London to pay massively over the odds for a house in the catchment area of a school with almost zero diverse intake? I know parents who have done that at our 'outstanding' state primary.

Why is that the one black girl in my child's class has never been invited for a play date in the almost 5 years she's been there? I only found this out a week ago and intend to be the first!

Why is that there are local schools in SW London that only contain black children (or at least that's how it appears)?

It's pretty obvious to me that most white middle class people want to be as separate from black/brown/poor people as possible and will use every underhand gaming trick in the book yo do this without having to confront their own prejudices and the resulting sense of shame.

"Shall we invite the black girl to Sophie's birthday party?"
"No No darling, she won't enjoy it, we're doing her a favour by not inviting her"
"I feel so ashamed, are we being racist?"
"Us? Never!"

@Tommomum you're absolutely spot on there. It's the endemic mc nice, white smiley racism you need to be wary of. I've been at a meeting where a senior lecturer complained that he had too many Muslims on his course. Very mc chap with degrees falling out of his ears teaching at a prestigious university. Shocking views but nobody at the meeting said a word, just giggled politely.

@Tommomum that's my favourite type of racism!!