4,381 school suspensions were handed out for racist abuse in London between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 autumn terms reports Clara Margotin, Data Reporter

Some secondary school students in uniform — Overall, more than 346,000 school suspensions were issued across England in the 2023-24 autumn term – (Credit – Radar)

Schools in London handed out thousands of school suspensions for racist abuse over the last 10 academic terms, new figures show.

A racial justice think tank said the soaring number of suspensions across England “should ring alarm bells”, and called for the adoption of proactive policies to tackle the roots of racism in schools.

Department for Education figures show 4,381 school suspensions were handed out for racist abuse in London between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 autumn terms.

Of those, 675 were issued in the 2023-24 autumn term — up from 316 three years before.

Meanwhile, the number of suspensions handed out for racist abuse across England has almost doubled in three years, from 2,628 in the 2020-21 autumn term to 4,966 last year.

A total of 33,440 suspensions were dished out across the country over these 10 school terms.

Dr Shabna Begum, CEO at the Runnymede Trust, said: “The surge in racist incidents in schools is deeply troubling — no child should attend school fearing discrimination.

“The figures should ring alarm bells for the urgency to take action and tackle racism in Britain.”

However, Dr Begum warned issuing school suspensions may not adequately address “the deep-seated racism that pervades our schools”, and said tackling racism calls for “whole-school and whole-society responses”.

She added “proactive strategies that address the root causes of racism and discrimination” such as training school staff on racial literacy, teaching pupils about race and implementing anti-racist strategies in schools should be adopted.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is concerning that so many pupils have been suspended for racist abuse.

“This is a complex issue but is likely being driven in part by the spreading of hateful content online and we would like to see better regulation put in place to stop this from happening.”

Di’Iasio added the increasing number of suspensions for racist abuse follows a wider upward trend in school suspensions.

To combat this, Di’Iasio called for “investment in specialist support services” to help young people before suspensions become necessary.

Overall, more than 346,000 school suspensions were issued across England in the 2023-24 autumn term, more than double the 160,000 handed out three years earlier.

Of those, 25,565 were in schools in London.

Up to three reasons can be recorded for each suspension.

Racist abuse contributed towards 1.4% of all school suspensions during the 2023-24 autumn term — down from 1.6% three years before.

Meanwhile, 190 permanent exclusions for racist abuse were issued across England over the last 10 terms, including 20 in London.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “These figures are unacceptable. We are clear that racism and discrimination have absolutely no place in our schools, nor in our society.

“We will always support our hard-working teachers to provide safe and calm classrooms so that every child can achieve and thrive.

“But we know there is more to do, and we are looking closely at how we can go further to support teachers and drive up standards for all our children.”

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