Diane Abbott by Robin Bunce;

Author:Robin Bunce;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 1)
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Abbott believed that black parents and teachers had a vital role to play in improving the educational attainment of black children. She pointed to the success of the Claudia Jones Saturday School in Hackney and the John Loughborough School in Tottenham. ‘What all of these schools have in common are highly motivated black teachers, involved parents, strong discipline and boundaries, and a celebration of the children’s cultural identities,’ she explained.13

LONDON SCHOOLS AND THE BLACK CHILD

In February 1999, prompted by the government’s decision to send a privatisation ‘hit squad’ into the Hackney Education Authority in response to a poor OFSTED report, Abbott organised the first Hackney Schools and the Black Child conference. She was concerned that black parents and educators were not being consulted about reforms which would primarily affect black children.

‘Diane’s concern was really to bring about a level of consciousness among parents in the borough about our interdependence,’ Professor John explains. ‘We needed to not simply be concerned about the quality of outcomes about our children, but to understand that we collectively needed to work to improve the standard of education in the borough.’14

Abbott had planned for 200 people to attend, but on the day, 450 people squeezed into the room in Hackney Town Hall. Abbott remarked that people had come from all over the UK because the event was the first of its kind: a discussion on black children’s education, led by black people, for black people. She also commissioned a report on black teachers, looking at issues of recruitment and retention, recognising that many felt disillusioned and disempowered. Due to the success of the conference, two more were held in November 1999 and October 2000. Both were oversubscribed.

When Ken Livingstone became the Mayor of London, he provided funding which enabled Abbott to make the conference city-wide. The first London Schools and the Black Child (LSBC) conference was held on 16 March 2002 and over 2,000 black parents, students, teachers, community organisers, school governors, local government workers and academics attended. Livingstone remarked, ‘I can’t think of any other idea Diane has had in the years I’ve known her, that has been quite as dramatically successful as this.’15

The first conference certainly had an impact and led to a series of educational initiatives which would go on to influence government policy. Smaller conferences brought together black parents, educationalists and teachers in Croydon, Ealing, Walthamstow and Haringey. The conference also led to the establishment of the Greater London Black Parents and Governors Network, as well as a research project on the attainment of black boys in London’s schools, which was led by respected educational consultant Carol Hunte. These initiatives took full advantage of the legal changes introduced by New Labour in the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000), which placed a statutory duty on schools to promote race equality by working to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination, and promoting equality of opportunity. Specifically, schools were required to monitor the impact of their practice ‘on pupils, staff and parents of different racial groups’ and on the ‘attainment levels’ of ethnic minority students.

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