MARCH 2023 THE VOICE
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13
News Feature
kids failed by schools
SPOTTING THE SIGNS: Cheryl Phoenix, far left, is founder of The Black Child Agenda, an organisation for parents in the African and Caribbean community whose children are failed by the UK education system; parents say they have been able to see when their child needs extra support (photo: Monstera)
school – but is currently being home schooled. Ms Thompson said the problems quickly started while her son was in reception class and they were often labelled as behavioural, such as being “easily distracted.” Eventually, the communication broke down and Ms Thompson decided to take Simon out of the school. At Simon’s second school he experienced bullying, which was never addressed by the school. His school day was reduced to a few hours before he was permanently excluded, despite being assessed for a EHC plan.
OUTCOMES
Ms Thompson says the lack of patience given to her son and his needs was because he is a little Black boy. Ms Thompson told The Voice, a teacher told her Simon could go into a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) to be assessed. She said: “As a Black parent, my issue is with the statistics of children who do go to PRUs where do they end up? What are the outcomes for these children? The attainment, the GCSEs? The outcome is terrible. “It’s a straight route into a Young Offenders Unit, the children don’t tend to get qualifications if they go to a PRU. “I was told it would only be for an assessment period. Why
would I send him to a place where they lock children into classrooms?” She filed complaints and was considering judicial review but I couldn’t afford it. As a last option, Ms Thompson decided to try a school for children with social and mental health needs as well as ADHD and autism. Ms Thompson said the school was a “traumatising” experience for her son. “When there are children with lots of trauma they shouldn’t be in the same setting, with children that only have a neurodiver-gent condition. “They are put into an environment where children are throwing things, kicking and fighting and they might not have that problem and my son didn’t have that problem and then they want to copy.” Ms Thompson cited a dramatic “change in her son’s behaviour” as the reason why she took him out of the school straight away. “I took him out for his own safety and wellbeing,” she added. “He is very intelligent, I don’t see my child as having a disability, I feel he thinks differently to us, his mind is very
powerful. He sees the details that other children don’t,” she added. She also revealed social services referrals were made against her based on what her son had said. She describes the racism and discrimination faced by her and her son as “very subtle” but extremely hurtful and dangerous. Looking to the future, Ms Thompson said: “I would main not consider a mainstream school again because the teachers do not have the time, there tends to be a lot of children who need extra provisions and I think a class of 30 wouldn’t work.” “The resources are just not there, it’s not the environment that he would feel comfortable in.” With her son due to start secondary school in a few years, Ms Thompson is already anxious and says she has already heard there is “even less support” for children with additional needs and is concerned her son would struggle. She is urging other Black parents to get their children assessed as soon as possible if they are concerned. But delays in the assessment
process could be ruining children’s education, which could make all the difference to their school life and educational outcomes. She said: “If you feel something’s not quite right, push for that Paediatric and Educational Psychologist assessment because then that informs everything else.” “You need to advocate and do what is best for your child and not what you are being forced to or think that you need to do, by a school system that I think is broken.” According to education experts, longstanding systemic racism and discrimination in Britain’s education system continues to have a catastrophic ripple effect on a new generation of Black pupils. Dr Shungu M’gadzah is a leading Educational Psychologist and provides Psychological assessments and is an expert witness for education SEND appeals. She said the disproportionate rate that Black Caribbean children are being mislabelled as disruptive is a “major concern.” Dr M’gadzah, pictured inset left, told The Voice: “The lenses through which Black children are viewed is that of being disruptors and they are seen as having behaviour problems, whereas if we were looking at white children, schools would look at their needs and they
would look at the barriers to learning. “They would look at specific learning difficulties, or impulsivity and ADHD, but when they are looking at Black children they tend to dismiss that. “They just look at the behaviours and you get a focus on either adultification, and seeing them as deliberately naughty, rather than there is some kind of barrier which needs to be worked with to help them.” Dr M’gadzah, who is also a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Coach and Trainer, believes teachers need more anti-racism training. “When children are referred to educational psychologists, what often happens is educational psychologists collude and go along with that label of the disruptive Black child and they don’t ask what are the key barriers to learning?”
HISTORY
The history of Black children’s experiences within the education system in Britain has been problematic for several decades. During the 1960s and ‘70s, hundreds of Black Caribbean children were labelled as “educationally subnormal” and were sent to special schools. This blatant discriminatory practice helped to birth the rise of the Black supplementary school movement across the UK. But decades later, Black
children are still underachieving at school and have one of the highest rates of permanent exclusion. According to government figures, Black Caribbean pupils had the second highest permanent exclusion rates between 2018 and 2019. Cheryl Phoenix is the founder of The Black Child Agenda, a well-known community organisation that helps parents from the African and Caribbean community – whose children are failed by the UK education system. Speaking to The Voice, Ms Phoenix said she has seen a rise in more Black children being diagnosed with SEND, which she puts down to how “they are treated in the education system” and how Black children react to unfair treatment. She said: “If you are treated in a certain way on a daily basis eventually you are going to respond and children only know one way to respond and that is lashing out, being rude or what is perceived as being rude and not doing as they are told.” Ms Phoenix stresses that these should not be reasons children are sent to have SEND assessments, and wants schools to have empathy for Black children and not just assume they are bad or come from a “dysfunctional household.” Continued on page 19
