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Black headteachers from across the UK have written letters to the next generation of school leaders, urging them to become role models for students who are crying out for “people who look like them”.

The letters are compiled in a book by Amanda Wilson, a headteacher at a primary school in Greenwich, south-east London, which is aimed at encouraging black teachers to pursue leadership positions to combat their current under-representation in the sector.  

Letters To a Young Generation: Aspiring School Leaders includes contributions from 18 black headteachers, who detail experiences of being stereotyped, working out of their comfort zones and the pressures of senior management.

“When you are called upon to deal with issues or projects that are perceived to be better suited to you, you know they think things like, ‘the Black man is better at behaviour and walking the corridors than leading on teaching and learning’,” writes Evelyn Forde MBE, the 2021 Times Educational Supplement (TES) headteacher of the year and the president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

“It is in these instances that you will have to demonstrate bold leadership, when you will have to professionally and respectfully challenge.”

Emmanuel Botwe, a head based in Macclesfield, speaks about his experiences in an area outside a large multicultural city. 

“I never thought that I would have ever been a senior leader outside of London,” he writes. “I had heard stories of racism, old-fashioned governing bodies and challenges for leaders of colour. Your existence in positions of authority will inspire far more people than you will ever realise. Furthermore, you will help to normalise the idea that we can be headteachers.”

Speaking at the launch of the book, Wilson said it was important all voices were heard. “I consulted 200 headteachers past and present all across the country in the process of making the book … it’s nice to see the support from colleagues [for the book] because I go into meetings and often I’m the minority, but I look around the room tonight and it’s good to be in the majority for once!”

Recent research has shown the diversity of the pupil body in schools in England is outstripping the teaching workforce. Minority ethnic applicants to initial teacher training are substantially less likely to be accepted, with applicants recorded as Black having the lowest acceptance rate and substantially lower than those for white applicants. In 2021, of the 20,786 headteachers in England, only 1% were Black.

Even though London has the most diverse teaching workforce, it lags so far behind the capital’s minority ethnic pupil population that the gap is the widest in England.

Wilson said her book was a challenge to those who have the authority to employ teachers. “Trusts and local authorities need to ask themselves the question – are they making sure that there is a diversity not only in their panels but also in the governing decision-making bodies?”

Prof Paul Miller, social justice director of the Institute for Educational & Social Equity and the first Black person to be appointed a professor of educational leadership at a UK university, said of the book: “The experiences in these letters are powerful and should provide aspiring school leaders with depths of insights on their journey to headship. The letters are crucial to our understanding of the black school leadership experience.”  Story by Morgan Ofori , Guardian

Five people were Wednesday morning killed in a road accident between Machinery and Kambu towns in Makueni along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.

The accident occurred when a bus collided head-on with a trailer that was heading to Nairobi.

Kibwezi sub-county police commander Peter Maina said the bus rammed into the rear side of a tractor headed in the same direction, with the impact throwing it onto the other lane before it collided head-on with a trailer. 

Those who died were the driver of the trailer, tractor, and bus, and two passengers who were in the trailer.

Several other passengers sustained injuries and are undergoing treatment at Kibwezi sub-county hospital. By Stephen Nzioka, The Standard

Guy Reid Bailey with Judi Love© Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror

Brimming with excitement and anticipation, 16-year-old Guy Reid-Bailey came to Bristol ready to start his new life after arriving from his home in Jamaica.

It was 1961, and the UK government was inviting Caribbean workers to Britain to help rebuild a country still recovering from World War II. The very first expats came over in 1948 on the HMT Empire Windrush, but when they got here many had difficulty finding work and housing - black people were often not allowed to go into pubs and dance halls - and if they were, would likely be herded into a separate area. 

Walking the streets of Bristol for the very first time, Guy remembers feeling let down by empty promises of a new life as he noticed signs in windows of rooms to let saying: ‘No Blacks, no Irish, no Dogs.’ And when he applied for a job on the Bristol buses in 1963, he wasn’t even given an interview simply because of the colour of his skin. 

He was starting to realise this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be. “When I arrived at the reception of the bus station there was a young lady and she asked me ‘how can I help?” Guy says. “I said ‘I’ve got an appointment at two o’clock’ and she said to the manager ‘your appointment for 2pm is here but he’s black’.

Then the manager said ‘tell him we have no more vacancies’.” This was just one example of the ‘colour bar’ in Britain where some white people discriminated against people of colour denying them jobs and housing. But what happened next changed history.

During the summer of 1963, people of all colours refused to board buses run by the Bristol Omnibus Company because of its refusal to employ black people as drivers or conductors. The Bristol Bus Boycott went on for three months until August 27, when the company announced it would end the colour bar the next day - the same day as Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in Washington DC in the US.

Not only did the 90-day boycott draw national attention to racial discrimination in Britain but it was also influential in the passing of the Race Relations Acts. For Guy, it must have felt surreal to have been such an important part of history?

“I was happy in a sense but not able to show it as I would have liked because of the danger of being attacked by groups of whites including teddy boys and Hells Angels,” he sighs. “They used to attack young black boys and it was heartbreaking to know that the country I came to wasn’t able to protect black people.”

 

It led to the Bristol Omnibus Company being boycotted© Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror

He had three brothers in Jamaica, but told them not to follow him to the UK because “I had to grow up very quickly and I wouldn’t wish my other brothers to experience what I did”. Guy never did become a bus driver, training as a social worker instead.

For over 60 years, Guy has been fighting for people of colour to have the same rights as white people, founding the United Housing Association in 1985 - the first black housing association in Bristol - and setting up the Bristol West Indies Cricket Club (BWICC) because he could see black people weren’t being given the same opportunities in sport.

 

The boycott went on for three months© DAILY MIRROR

Earlier this year he was invited to a special screening to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycott at the Watershed in Bristol with Judi Love, comedian and Loose Women panellist, whose parents came to Britain from Jamaica to start a new life. Both Guy and Judi were moved to tears watching archive video footage of the Bristol Bus Boycott on the huge cinema screen set up to commemorate the occasion. 

Guy says: ‘My heart moans every time I see those pictures, I shed tears inside. It’s hard to live with. I was sad because in Jamaica if you were black you were given the same opportunities as a white person as long as you had the same education. That’s what drew me to come to England.”

In 2005, Guy was awarded an OBE (the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen at Buckingham Place for his outstanding achievements and service to people in the South West of England. And comedian Judi Love invited him to the Daily Miror’s Pride of Britain awards, with TSB, asking him to represent the Windrush generation when they received a Special Recognition Awards.

 

The Windrush Generation (represented by Alford Gardner, Lloyd Coxsone, Joseph Mowlah-Baksh, Guy Bakley and Vernesta Cyril) win Outstanding Contribution Award presented by Sir Trevor McDonald and Judi Love at the 2023 Pride of Britain Awards© Steve Bainbridge / Daily Mirror

His story will also be among those told in a special ITV documentary Pride Of Britain: A Windrush Special this week. “Is this for real?” he says in disbelief. “I can’t believe it, I’m overwhelmed.” Although things have improved over the last 60 years, Guy believes there is still some way to go to stamp out inequality, adding that he can only hope his actions have inspired the younger generation to stand up for their rights. 

“The fight is not over, the fight will keep going,” Guy says. “We need younger people to continue to be there for the ones that come after them. What I would like to see is more young people getting involved and not just accepting inequality.”

Judi has nothing but admirations for Guy whose actions helped change the lives of so many people for the better. “My parents came over here with nothing in the late 1950s, early 60s and being Jamaican you just hear the stories, you see the pictures of them coming off the boat looking absolutely stunning in their colourful outfits and the men looking sharp.

“It’s not until I got older that I understood the complexities that came with that. I want to thank Guy for what he’s done, for what he’s contributed. Thank you for changing history and making history for someone like me and people that were born after you. Thank you.”  by Jackie Annett , Daily Mirror