Martin Luther King had a dream we all
know the dream that Martin Luther King
had he had a dream about social
integration as opposed to social
separation he spearheaded a dream where
equal opportunities became a reality in
a whole country anyone on this room has
a dream whether it’s big or whether it’s
small I have lots of dreams about the
diversity I’d like to see in our schools
in this country before I share my dreams
with you I’d like to share some of the
realities with you so I invite you to
close your eyes I’m going to take you on
a journey to South London I’ve taught in
schools of South London for the last 12
years we’re gonna meet in Tooting
Tooting is a melting pot in South London
we’re gonna meet near the market in the
market you’re going to hear a variety of
different languages being spoken you’re
gonna see a variety different fruits and
vegetables being sold we’re going to
jump on the bus and we’re going to
journey to a local school on a bus we’re
going to see those different people from
most different places talking in
different languages as we get to the
school I used to work at will be greeted
at the gates where some of my former
colleagues the SLT all mail or white
will go through the school gate from one
of my former students Nikita will become
our guide for the morning she will
navigates us through the playground a
cacophony of different languages being
spoken 37 to be precise we’ll go into
reception will admire the beautiful
black and white photos of beautiful
black and white children adorning the
walls of reception we’re in to visit an
English lesson we go down to watch Miss
Smith teacher you a English lesson
there’s some students newly arrived to
England to a sat with a teaching
assistant who’s helping them access for
language they’re studying more poetry
the walls have pictures of war poet
and soldiers or white or male wearing
army uniforms we leave the Nelson and we
walk down the corridor to go to the
senior leadership meeting in the
boardroom one of the phase catches our
eyes it’s bigger it’s bolder it’s
brighter than the other displays and the
corridor we ask the key to what this
displays about well miss it’s October
and in October it’s Black History Month
and in Black History Month we celebrate
diversity this display has all the
pictures of all diversity in our school
we carry on to the boardroom and in the
board of him as senior leaders is that
waiting for us or whites or mail the
photos on the wall of the leadership
teams past and present and the
governor’s equally of the same
background we leave the boardroom we go
back to reception our final impressions
of the school are those beautiful black
and white photos please open your eyes
this is the reality of the schools I’ve
worked in for 12 years black and white
photos of beautiful black and white
children represent the diverse
communities that I’ve served communities
with fifty five to six percent of the
communities not being whites but however
the staff in these schools did not
represent those communities as opposed
to a rainbow of diversity our schools
more likely resemble a Julis color
charts they get lighter and paler and
mailer as you move from the cleaners who
are black women to the head teachers who
are white men we’re here today to think
about how to inspire the next generation
we build our children up in our
classrooms every day we tell them they
can be who they want to be they can be
anything they put their hearts and their
minds to but can they do we warn them
about the glass ceilings the glass
ceilings that are imposed on you if
you’re a woman or if you’re from a black
Asian minority ethnicity background I
don’t think we warn them enough about
the realities more than four of our
children in our schools are not whites
but out of the 27,000 had teachers in
this country only 270 of them are not
white
the very one CEO in the country who is
not white that’s history Lance reality
of the schools we serve so I do have
diverse dreams I have dreams for the
children who I teach I have dreams
whereby we have diverse people
delivering the diverse curriculum the
diverse curriculum showcases diverse
role models the assemblies and the
activities in the school celebrate the
diversity of the communities we serve
the senior leaders making decisions
about the communities we serve are also
from diverse backgrounds as are the
governors as are the policymakers as are
the politicians because when you have
the same people making decisions all the
time you develop a groupthink situation
where nothing ever changes we’ve taught
today about the recruitment crisis the
retention crisis in fact we’ve got a
talent spotting crisis we have got
hidden figures in every school aspirant
black Asian minority ethnicity educators
who want to be leaders who and leave in
the education system because their their
value is not being recognized by the
schools they work in and I’ll shown
annotate with you
I’m currently leading one of the
diversity and equality grants we’ve got
75 black Asian when I was he s NIT
leaders in that group we had our launch
event in South London they were all
together in one room in a school a very
diverse school that group of educators
caused a stir children were walking past
turning their heads that came back to
inquire why were there so many black
people in one room in their school
they’d never seen so many diverse
educators together before the educators
in the room said this is the reality
they think we’re gonna have a riot
because we’re black and we’re in the
school and we’re all together I find
that quite shocking we pride ourselves
on being a diverse country but do we
live those values a lot of people think
they promote diversity they are gender
equality champions you might think it do
they say it do they call it out I’ve
been asked to speak it’s three events in
the last six weeks about diversity not a
single person
on any of those three programs was from
a non white background so I flipped the
organizers I will not speak at them
about diversity when you’re not
promoting diversity with the people you
are selecting to speak at your events in
the 12 years I’ve sought I’ve been a
leader in London three schools three
senior leadership teams three boardrooms
I’ve worked with two non-white
colleagues two women the black Asian 100
250 backgrounds the statistics just
don’t add up so I really think we need
to be thinking about how we can affect
change in our schools the careers
guidance for our young people how can we
International Women’s Week this Woman’s
Day this year the theme was be bold for
change I would like us all to think
today about how we can be bothered for
change how can we be champions and
change agents and make differences for
society ultimately will then inspire a
more diverse workforce thank you very much