I am a teacher in a school - is this right?

[TTlover]

Hi all.

I am a primary school teacher (UK) and after the racism that has been happening in the football, I taught the children in my class a lovely lesson on equality.

The children then made equality posters and anti racism posters.

We then went to put the posters up around the school.

The head teacher approached me and asked all of the children to take them down.

I feel really upset by this. It wasn’t an issue with the blue tac on the walls as there are always posters going up from other classes.

I had to turn all of my children around, ask them to take their posters down and then come back up to the classroom with the children confused.

Perhaps I should have asked first, but I really didn’t see it being an issue.

Did I cross the line? Now I feel anxious.

[quote TTlover]@Unfinishednam I completely see it from your view point.

I didn’t want to raise an agenda but wanted to send the message of equality, especially with what is going on in the news.

Perhaps I was wrong x[/quote]
I think you should have asked

What a lovely thing your tried to do in a respectful and age appropriate way- children need to understand these things and schools cant sweep them under the carpet.

I wish you were in my sons school

Equality in terms of anti-racism and current laws is part of British Values - schools and colleges are encouraged to have conversations around this.

Nobody can tell you why the head asked you to take them down except the head!

I do think it was silly to go round putting posters up in the corridors without checking. In my school we aren’t allowed anything up in the corridors unless they are inside the wall mounted display cabinets. If anything falls off in the night it sets the alarm off and the school are charged a call out fee.

I wouldn't dream of putting up posters - about anything - around the school without permission! I think that was very naive. Well intentioned, and I'm sure the pupils got a lot out of making the posters, but very naive.
Could you not just have put them in your classroom?

@TTlover

I have taught in the school for 3 years and it has never been said that we can’t put posters up.

I will ask the head teacher. Thanks all. I know you probably think it’s silly to vent on here but I have anxiety and this often helps for me to get the thoughts out of my head.

let us know the outcome be interested why you were asked to take them down

Op, I just think you are young and made a naive mistake based on positive intentions. As many of us do when we are young! You can learn from it and move on.

"I have no hidden agendas - I wouldn’t even know politics if it hit me in the face !"

That's a very strange statement IMO. It reads as though you don't recognise or understand what the word means.

I would assume it's because there is some rule about anything going on walls in communal school areas having to be agreed with someone higher up. Otherwise anyone could plaster whatever they wanted around the school (presumably they wouldn't but I'd imagine there is some kind of procedure).

You should have asked the head before putting things on the walls outside of your classroom.

I'm sure it's more likely to be that than any issues with the subject of anti-racism/ equality.

Just check with the head what the procedure/ rule is.

@TTlover

Hi all.

I am a primary school teacher (UK) and after the racism that has been happening in the football, I taught the children in my class a lovely lesson on equality.

The children then made equality posters and anti racism posters.

We then went to put the posters up around the school.

The head teacher approached me and asked all of the children to take them down.

I feel really upset by this. It wasn’t an issue with the blue tac on the walls as there are always posters going up from other classes.

I had to turn all of my children around, ask them to take their posters down and then come back up to the classroom with the children confused.

Perhaps I should have asked first, but I really didn’t see it being an issue.

Did I cross the line? Now I feel anxious.

I am so sorry that you feel you have to “teach a lovely lesson on equality” to show your credentials as a caring teacher. Equality , fairness and respect should be implicit in every lesson you teach, every playtime duty you do, every assembly you deliver, every resource you allow into your classroom. Are you challenging the children when you see or hear comments or actions that go against those principles, are you demonstrating equality and fairness in how you manage your class , in how you speak to the children and other adults in the school?

If you think you are going to change mindsets by sticking up a few woke posters you are sadly mistaken.

Somebody just wrote on the staff WhatsApp group that their children are posting eco posters around the school.

Maybe it’s a naive mistake on my part, but nobody else seems to ask.

I am a new(ish) teacher and can only go by what everybody else has always done.

I will ask the head. And perhaps it needs to be written in our teacher policy if this is the case as I wasn’t aware.

Thank you for all of your contributions. X

It sounds like a great activity, you just should have checked before putting posters up all over school.

I’ve been teaching a long time, am on slt & have a very easy-going head but I’d still check with them before putting posters anywhere except in my own classroom.

@viques I think that is an unfair comment. Ofcourse I hold equality as a value and follow the value daily (I think I’d be a very dangerous teacher otherwise!) don’t you?

@ProfSprout thank you! I will learn from this lesson

I suppose it depends on the content and angle of your anti-racism posters as well.

Did they have a positive focus i.e. inclusion, equality, community? Or was it a more negative focus i.e. getting the children wound up about racism and those who are being abusive to the footballers?

Racism shouldn't be tolerated in schools, or anywhere (obviously) but to shout about it in a negative way on the walls of a primary school is ramming it down their throats a bit.

To be suitable for a primary school it would need to be more about "everyone is welcome" than "racists are NOT welcome" if that makes sense.

If the signs had more of a negative focus like this, then I can see why the head wouldn't want that plastered around the school. It makes it a political space and children don't need that on the school walls.

@strawberrydonuts this makes sense. I didn’t think of it like this.

I think in that case it would have been more ‘negative’.

Perhaps I got too carried away? Aghh! I can see what you’re saying now...

As others have said, it's likely to be a hot potato for the HT.

What you might view as a "lovely lesson on equality", others might view as political or offensive or imposing your own views on the children. For example - do the posters say "be kind to everyone" or do they say "God loves everyone" or "jesus was probably brown skinned" or "black lives matter" or "boys can be girls too"

Most people will be fine with the first, lots will consider the second doesn't belong in a school, many will find the third offensive, some people will not be ok with the fourth due to the fact that they feel it is political and potentially polarising/demonising, the fifth is offensive to a significant proportion of society and factually incorrect.

The problem is that you are not qualified to teach these issues and they are tricky to steer through.

[quote TTlover]@strawberrydonuts this makes sense. I didn’t think of it like this.

I think in that case it would have been more ‘negative’.

Perhaps I got too carried away? Aghh! I can see what you’re saying now...[/quote]
It sounds like you had all the best intentions but maybe just not quite the right angle on it for the age group of primary school kids.

I would recommend having a really open discussion with the head about it (if they have time and are open to it) and talk about the best angle for approaching these subjects with the kids. It is really important to cover them but perhaps not in quite that way.

If you're a new teacher everything is going to be a learning experience and there is nothing wrong with that :) It's really important that we have teachers who care about this stuff so good on you. I'm sure the kids in your class will benefit from that.

@strawberrydonuts thank you. I will do just as you’ve advised

You’ve really calmed me down whilst being able to clarify the other side of the argument that I didn’t see before.

Thank you!. X

@Iwantacampervan

To answer another qusetion - where I am in Hampshire/West Sussex we don't break up until 23rd July.

Same in Derbyshire.

[quote TTlover]@viques I think that is an unfair comment. Ofcourse I hold equality as a value and follow the value daily (I think I’d be a very dangerous teacher otherwise!) don’t you?[/quote]
I hope you do, it was the phrasing “teaching a lovely lesson on equality” that struck me as perhaps a bit naive, it’s not really something that you can teach as a one off, put up posters about and tick off your to do list. Sorry if that is not what you meant, but that is how it came over.

I spent most of my teaching career trying to develop policies and practices on inclusion and became quite good at spotting the token efforts that some teachers put in to changing their ways! One lesson on Mary Seacole and an assembly about Nelson Mandela does not mean the school ticks a diverse curriculum box.

I work in a college so students are very interested in these kind of issues but you cannot put up posters, pictures, anything, without getting permission first. There'd be all sorts up. Same way you couldn't do it in offices etc.

I’m guessing you are a newish teacher. The football was on Monday, the racism was only in the news yesterday so I’m not sure you’ve had time to plan and resource a thoughtful and appropriate lesson on equality. Unless you just talked at them (and how much thought went into your words? Was it just your opinions or a bit of a lecture?) and got them to make posters, which would be imo a rather lazy end of term lesson. It concerns me that you said you don’t know about politics and yet you appear to have done this with no real thought - well intentioned but naive. Also were the posters actually good or were they just scrappy bits of paper with, as a pp said, a negative or political slant. If you are doing racism posters will there be posters on other aspects of inclusion - disability, sexuality, women’s issues..? Could the posters have inadvertently come across as patronising or even racist themselves?

Whilst I don’t think your head handled it in the best way I would never dream of putting posters up on school walls around the building withh HH out checking first x