To think it's weird that our school only has pictures of white children on its website?

[BruhWhy]

Just that really. We live in an area that's increasingly ethnically diverse and my own children are mixed.

There is a mix of white, black, Asian and mixed children in every class, in every year.

They just updated their website and have taken lots of new pictures of pupils to put onto it, but they've chosen only white children.

I know it's not massively important in the grand scheme of things but it did make me sit there and think 'oh, this might have been a decision that was made' and it's made me feel a bit funny.

It is weird. And hopefully it’s a complete oversight on their behalf. I would be tempted to point out to them how little the website represents the diversity of the school as a whole.

I think it IS massively important and I would definitely ask them why.

Very weird

It's definitely worth raising it.

This doesn't seem right, unless the parents of every non-white child in the school declined permission for their child to appear on the website, but if that were the case you'd presumably know about it.

I think it's really shoddy, the website should represent the diversity of the school. And even if a school didn't have a very diverse mix you'd think they would then want to encourage all families to feel they could fit in there.

I would ask an open question initially, give them an opportunity to apologise and rectify this. Is there someone responsible for inclusion?

I agree that for an ethnically diverse school it does seem odd but maybe some parents haven’t given their permission for the children to have their picture put on social media, including the school website. I would ask if this is the case and, if not, then raise the point that the web page doesn’t reflect the ethnic make up of the school.

It IS important.

I’d be emailing the head and the board and suggesting they sort it out by the NY.

Bring it up. It’s really very unusual for the school not to have considered this.

I think I'd raise it with the local authority area overseeing education. That way they'll keep eyes firmly on that school for a while to ensure that all children are being treated equitably and getting the same opportunities. I wouldn't go directly to the school with this as it suggests a very poor culture has been normalised....

Hm, dc were often photographed and felt it was only because they were NOT white

That is absolutely something that is worth raising. I accept it is unlikely to have been deliberate, but is an example of the subconscious bias of whoever chose the pictures.

My experience is that it's usually the other way round, which is even more irritating and patronising. Schools are usually desperate to show how 'diverse' and welcoming they are to the point of insisting that they have photographs of children from different ethnic backgrounds all the time.

See Jack Whitehall on Marlborough College!

That's an astonishing oversight - you'd think they'd want to reflect diversity.

Our school website has 8 photos on rotation. Good ethnic diversity for a not massively diverse school. But 7/8 are focused on boys. 1/8 has the head with a group of pupils, so there are girls and boys. Of the 7 that focus on boys, 2 do have some girls out of focus in the background. Maybe it's bugging me because my DC are girls.

It will be oversight.
Plus GDPR. They will probably have been paying more attention to not putting anyone up who shouldn't be online.

Doesn't mean it's OK though.
It definitely needs pointing out that you're disappointed it doesn't reflect the school culture. But I would add in a compliment about the layout etc.
People need their white privilege pointing out.

That is extremely wrong and odd.

Exact opposite at our school.

Whereas at the schools near me (very white) they go out their way to include the few black/Asian children etc.

There's still a photo on the main landing page from about 8 years ago of a black child who left ages ago .

Normally the other way round IME.

[quote MadMadMadamMim]My experience is that it's usually the other way round, which is even more irritating and patronising. Schools are usually desperate to show how 'diverse' and welcoming they are to the point of insisting that they have photographs of children from different ethnic backgrounds all the time.

See Jack Whitehall on Marlborough College!

[/quote] Yes that’s what I was going to say. I went to a school with 2,200 pupils and I am not exaggerating when I say there were literally 4 black students during the time I was there. They were in a disproportionate number of pictures in an attempt to make this very white school in a very white town look more diverse.

But to answer the OP, yes I’d raise it.

It is important. Definitely raise it. It's this sort of representation that needs challenging.

Every child in our school is white so it wouldn’t be strange for us.

However, if your area and school is ethnically diverse then this is very off!!!!

When our primary did this some years back, it was because they were in a hurry and only put the governing body's children on there in order to be sure they had parental permission, because the relevant parents were right there in the meeting. IIRC, nearly every child in the images wasn't just white but ginger or blond, so it was really obvious.

Yes, they did realise pretty quickly that the makeup of the (all white) governing body needed attention in that case.

This really is important! Ofsted would definitely have some keen questions to ask about diversity, and so should you. I'd raise this at the earliest opportunity. If it's an accidental oversight it can be swiftly fixed. If not, somebody has some explaining to do!

It is important. I'd email the head. My schools were also very diverse and we only had white children in photos and posters, and only white children doing tours on open days, as well as all white tutor groups...

It's an issue bigger than it seems to most, but it's important all the same.