Will this effect her secondary school application?

[DontstepontheMomeRaths]

DD is 9 and impulsive and is an expert at saying things without thinking. After watching about North Korea missile tests on the news she went into school about a month ago and mucking about declared the Chinese will rule the world and they'll be another world war. Yeah, she got confused on which country.
Except the girl she was talking to was half Chinese

The child only mentioned it to the teacher yesterday. They're going to put it on her file as a racist incident as per their behaviour policy. They admit she said she was joking about but that's their procedure.

I am disappointed she said it. It was a stupid thing to say but on her file, really? Do I need to worry this will effect her application for secondary in September?

No it won't.

But I would kick off big time about it being declared a racist incident if that's all she said. It's not racist to have an opinion on current affairs. It would be racist if she said that she doesn't like Chinese people because of xyz, or she thinks all Chinese people are xyz.

I'm not sure the school admissions office has the time or inclination to inspect "files" kept on the children applying...

it has to be recorded, it would be against the law for it not to be recorded. And it doesn't matter whether you think it is racist or not, or even if the school thinks it was racist or not. The fact that the child did is enough.

But it won't follow your daughter round on her record, I doubt it will even be on her next year's record.
Children generate so many records these days . we cn't read and store them all!

It WILL remain on the school's record, although I am fairly sure that will be without a name.

At least the schools records on racism I see, as a Head of year, or as a governor, are without names. Some one somewhere might have access to names, but I don't think so, and even if they do, I don't think anyone can find out.

I don't think it will be a problem, kids say some stupid things. I had one boy in a class call another kid something horrendous (very racist) but when I spoke to him about it he genuinely didn't have a clue how bad the word was. Very sadly he was obviously just using a term he heard at home

It does sound like the primary school is probably overreacting a little bit here. However they are going to be worried about not responding appropriately and so will be covering their backs probably.

Thank you. That's really helpful.

DD didn't seem to grasp what she'd done until I explained it to her

The secondary school cannot take your daughter's behaviour at primary school into account for admissions purposes. That is specifically prohibited by the Admissions Code. The offer you get will be determined by the admission criteria alone, not by anything she may have said or done in school.