Staff at primary schools are recording racist incidents, including one pupil’s hair being called “different” by children as young five years old

  • The Mail on Sunday: Five-year-olds make innocent remarks about their parents
  • Critics argue that children should not be approached informally.
  • Although the head teacher says it is not racism, staff feel nervous so they report it.










Children The Mail on Sunday has learned that children as young as 5 are being recorded as “racist incidents” by their primary school staff.

Some of the comments included remarks about another child’s hair being ‘different’. A pupil under 11 used the word “chocolate” to describe a classmate’s complexion when asked.

Education campaigners caution that formalizing the remarks as “racist incident” is flawed because of a misunderstanding of children’s behaviour.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that children as young as five are having innocent-sounding playground remarks logged as 'racist incidents' by primary school staff (Pictured is children in a school playground in early 2000s)

Mail on Sunday can report that as young children as 5 are making innocent comments in their playgrounds, which primary school staff have logged as racist incidents. Pictured is a group of children at school in the 2000s.

Critics believe that youngsters need to be treated informally.

This newspaper used Freedom of Information laws to get responses from 40 of the 84 schools in the country who were asked for incident reports between 2018 and 2021.

Schools in many cities, such as London, Manchester and Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool, Brighton, can keep records of incidents that are recorded on the files of pupils. This information is transferable to secondary schools.

Another uses a national database that contains all incidents, which is accessible to other teachers for monitoring and access. In fact, over 60 000 incidents of racism were recorded by local educational trusts and councils in five years.

MoS now has the ability to reveal that schools are guilty of racial incidents.

After comments made about the brown skin and hair color of a classmate, one involving five-year old girl was considered a racist incident.

One incident that occurred after England’s defeat to Italy at the Euros final was when children informed staff they were creating a book on Terry, the terrorist who planned to go to Italy and kill all Italian football fans.

This was recorded as racist.

The incident was started by a 9-year-old boy who approached an 11-yearold girl, claiming ‘you’re from Turkey’ and then ‘pretending’ to be Turkey.

Although there are no laws requiring it, school leaders claim that they should be encouraged to report any incidents of racism to the authorities.

London-based primary education expert said the problem of racism was partly due to teachers hiding behind their backs.

Pupils enjoy themselves playing on an artificial grass surface during break time at Kingsmead Primary School, east London. School leaders say they are encouraged to report all racist incidents to local authorities, though there is no legal requirement

Kingsmead Primary School’s children enjoy playing on artificial grass surfaces during their break. While school officials say that all incidents of racism should be reported to the authorities, there is no law.

A former headteacher who was black said that he did not wish his name to be used. [a comment]Could be racist. It must be documented and covered up.

‘Children don’t have malicious intent a lot of the time, it’s not racism – teachers… feel very nervous so they report it.’

Adrian Hart, who was a researcher and discovered the incident reports from Brighton schools said that the vast majority of so-called racist incidents schools see are evidence of children acting childishly.

The National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Headteachers were unable comment.

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