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hEADS’ ANNuAl CoNFErENCE
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BSA’s recent Annual Conference
for Heads focused on the theme of Diversity. During the conference, we put together a panel of heads from four of our member schools to give us their thoughts on diversity in boarding.
United by Diversity since 1553, King Edward’s Witley began with the same Royal charter as Christ’s Hospital. Our founding mission was to create a House to lodge Christ in, to be a foundation for life for vulnerable pupils with a boarding need. With a pupil roll of nearly 400, 1:8 is supported by our endowment rather than by fee income.
This sets our ethos - of welcome and compassion rather than selection and privilege.
Our dual curriculum of IB and A Level appeals to our local and European pupils. Diversity of culture and language is at the core of our being.
So on an idyllic rural campus in beautiful Surrey, we are a community where there is diversity: culture, nation, race, socio-economic background, gender, sexuality, religion… and equally important and less obvious, we have neuro – diversity, difference of thought and learning styles. We are working hard on how to think again. 1 11
Joanna Wright
Head King Edward’s Witley I boarded at a state boarding school Schools make the difference when they where there were, as I recall, no non- see themselves clearly, recognise white pupils. Nicknamed the Boat Girl – tokenism for what it is, and are honest an indicator of my age. I have about the prejudice that is more represented “diversity”. As a female, prevalent than we may care to imagine. ostensibly non-white Head of an HMC School, I see that things are changing. We need to actively seek change – not It is a privilege to work in a boarding because it is the right thing to do as school because there is such institutions that were founded on opportunity to make a difference. We philanthropic intent – to help create a are uniquely well-placed to build the better world and be runways for our right environment so that, young young people as they prepare to go people can learn how diversity is a fact into the corporate and global world of life be celebrated … learning can only happen if the culture within the So how do we do this? We can create school is right for difference to be and nurture school cultures where we recognised and spoken about without hear the underhand comments, we fear. To grow understanding the notice the unconscious bias in culture must be all right to explore, ourselves and in our colleagues, we express and embrace the unfamiliar. address the unintended prejudice, We may need to look at ourselves be genuine in our preparation of pupils differently – diversity is our new for life beyond. normal. Historically, schools have been to meet some political sensitivities but dispel ignorance, and only then can we institutions built around uniformity Diversity is a fact, a fixed state. We and conformity – think of the lengths know that prejudice grows in passivity people went to stop children from and inclusion is the dynamic counter writing with their left hand. So we need action to take us forward. Where better ways to see ourselves honestly. to learn this than in boarding schools?
We may need to look at ourselves2 differently –diversity is our new normal.
2
commitment to diversity and inclusion:
Mark Ronan
Head The King’s Hospital School, Dublin engage with Nikki Cunningham-Smith, At the end of May, when the In the days after George Floyd’s death, I who spoke at a BSA Conference in television images of George Floyd’s really struggled to know how I could February. She has provided wellkilling in Minneapolis came on our speak with authenticity on racism as a received insight and support to screens, it triggered a sequence of privileged white male with a colleagues at the start of this term. events at our school in Dublin that Cambridge economics degree who will we had not anticipated. not be subject to racism. So, I Also, we are working with the Anticontacted my sister-in-law, Scottish bullying Centre at Dublin City For context, The King’s Hospital is a born of Asian heritage, for her advice. University (DCU), which holds a Church of Ireland School situated on UNESCO chair in anti-bullying. We are the western edge of Dublin. It is an What she said to me resonated planning a three-year long term area that has seen significant strongly: ‘You must live to the values of student-led research project, where the population growth in the last decade, your school community because those students will work with researchers with an increasing diversity resulting values know no colour, no gender and from the Anti-bullying Centre. from immigration into Ireland. This is no sexuality’. That reassured me that I also reflected in our student could speak about my abhorrence for The former student that I met said to population. racism and any form of discrimination. me: ‘This will take time to change and The death of George Floyd prompted During the summer, I engaged with a change’. former and current students to share former student of the school, who is on social media their experience of the now working with us to introduce a We are at the start of a journey and we racism within our school community. diversity and inclusion group based on are determined that our commitment a similar group that he experienced at to a diverse and inclusive community is As a school, we pride ourselves on a the Boston College of Law last year. the lived experience of all our students. one of the main reasons why I pursued I also met four Form 6 girls who shared the Principal’s post at The King’s with me their experience of racism Hospital when it arose. within school. This prompted us to we need to work hard to embed that
When Mark (Mark Lauder Headmaster of Strathallan School and BSA Chair) kindly got in touch to chat about the conference, the theme of diversity was one that resonated with me - to be very honest, it was also nice to talk about something other than COvID!
Thinking about diversity, for me my starting point was my own education, and then my career. I grew up in the north of England and my own education was wholly in local state schools. I enjoyed school, had a good education and was taught by some excellent teachers, but thinking back I am struck that I went through my entire education having only white British teachers. Our classes were made up primarily of white British children.
Now, I am not in any way complaining about my own education, but it does provoke the question - if my own interaction directly impacts how I feel about myself, society and its attitudes towards so many different areas, then by not having access to racially diverse teachers, was my education missing something? 34I can recall too many examples of the few children from different races in my school being treated differently mostly as a result of ignorance. In my first teaching job, I remember a member of staff facing intrusive questions in the staffroom for not eating lunch during Ramadan. The majority of staff just didn’t understand. He dealt with this with such patience and understanding - a highly impressive role model for us all. Of course the beauty of education is that the very best teachers widen the minds of their pupils. In the sixth form I moved to an excellent state comprehensive school in Durham, and it was here that one particular teacher truly challenged my somewhat narrow minded views, through literature. We studied Grace Nichols and Maya Angelou alongside Shakespeare and Austen, and the discussions we had in class encouraged us all to look at the world through different eyes and consider different Throughout my career I have been fortunate to teach in a wide range of different schools - I started my career as a PE teacher in a 11-16 local authority school, and have since taught in the independent sector – single sex, coeducational, day and boarding, and since 2011 at Mowden Hall School. I have definitely felt in a minority at times - I have attended senior management conferences and been the only female delegate, and I felt during one interview my own education in the state system was perceived very negatively. At the conferences I attended I felt very welcome, and I am aware the majority of my colleagues were horrified at the realisation that this particular group was so male dominated. Overall, being the only woman attending was fine actually - for me it made no difference. From a diversity point of view, I think it is a very interesting and positive time to be a new Head and I am wholly committed to maximising the Kate Martin Head Mowden Hall School viewpoints. I still love Grace Nichols experience our education system poetry and ‘I know why a caged bird provides. Addressing the theme of sings’ remains one of my favourite diversity will be one of my personal novels. I think everyone should read objectives this year, and also be an Bernadine Evaristo’s novel, Girl, integral part of our strategic plan at Woman, Other, which is refreshingly Mowden Hall. diverse and gloriously challenging.
315 4As the Head of Millfield, I am lucky enough to be in an organisation which has been determinedly diverse since its foundation 85 years ago. The school was founded in 1935 with six India princes and four non feepaying students from the local community. Children come to Millfield from 70 different countries; they are neurologically diverse, sociologically diverse, economically diverse and ethnically diverse – and that is what makes up the Millfield mix. At this time, though, it is easy to focus only on COVID and the inevitable phenomenal challenges that organisations are facing. However, I believe that we have a once in a generation opportunity to set and reset school cultures. After all, our communities have been away from our campuses for six months and many of our students were new to the school at the start of this year. The Black Lives Gavin Horgan Headmaster Millfield My own background in education has been determinedly diverse. I gained a place on a full bursary at a boarding school, which transported me away from a bleak mining village in south west Scotland. I am in no doubt that that transformed my life opportunities. I have worked all over the world, in international education, and in state education here in the UK – in central London and in Hampshire. I have clearly seen the need for us to understand white privilege and to challenge racism at every opportunity we can. We need to be explicit in our approach to this, and in our teaching; that is what our students expect of us and that is the opportunity we have been given. Prejudice grows in passivity and, too often, we are not active and explicit enough in asserting what we stand for as organisations and as individuals. Matter campaign, from last term, showed us clearly that our alumni wanted more from us when they were at school and we have an opportunity now, like no other, to respond to that.
