As head teacher of Britain’s most expensive day school, since 2017 Robin Appleby has enjoyed a pay packet to rival those of the turbo-charged bankers, sports stars and celebrities whose ultra-privileged children she educates.

Last year, her basic salary for running the £32,650-a-year American School in London (ASL) was £337,000. She was also paid £25,000 in ‘other remuneration’, plus £34,000 in ‘pension contributions’. In other words, the 56-year-old former English teacher took home very nearly £400,000.

This is nearly six times the salary of an average head of school in the UK and more than 10 times higher than the average teacher.

This is not bad news for someone who works at a registered charity.

But, you can’t have everything forever. And last week Mrs Appleby’s lucrative reign at ASL — which has 1,350 students and alumni who include Kathleen Turner and Police drummer Stewart Copeland — came to a juddering halt.

Her sudden resignation was emailed out to the parents of the school’s pupils (who often share their gates with Salma Hayek, the Hollywood actress and football coach Thierry Hyek). On January 1, she will be leaving.

This is a rare move. ASL has only eight head in its 70 year history. Two of the three previous heads served out their full 10-year contracts.

As head teacher of Britain’s most expensive day school, since 2017 Robin Appleby (pictured) has enjoyed a pay packet to rival those of the turbo-charged bankers, sports stars and celebrities whose ultra-privileged children she educates

As head teacher of Britain’s most expensive day school, since 2017 Robin Appleby (pictured) has enjoyed a pay packet to rival those of the turbo-charged bankers, sports stars and celebrities whose ultra-privileged children she educates

Parents (whose children face being left without a head midway through the academic year) were given precious little explanation, aside from a carefully worded statement saying she had left to ‘focus on her own wellbeing and that of her family’.

But few of them, surely, can have believed that was the real reason for Appleby’s premature exit.

Her decision to run and cut was made amid toxic controversy surrounding racial politics, perhaps the most controversial issue in our time.

With Britain’s classrooms increasingly on the front line of culture wars amid claims that Left-wing teachers are imposing politically correct values on a generation of children, the fallout from recent events on this gilded campus near Regent’s Park may have implications for schools across the land.

One of the two controversies that predated Appleby’s departure involves long-standing complaints by parents about an ultra-‘woke’ teaching agenda she chose to introduce some 18 months ago.

Second, it concerns allegations that her agenda may have led to anti-Semitic incidents while she was in charge.

For her decision to cut and run came amid two toxic controversies involving perhaps the most divisive issue of our times, racial politics

Her decision to run and cut was made amid toxic controversy surrounding racial politics, perhaps the most controversial issue in our time.

I can reveal that the governing board of trustees at the school, which has many Jewish students, decided to launch what a spokesman calls the ‘complaints process’ amid claims that highly offensive remarks had been made at a meeting of ASL’s entire faculty of teachers, which Appleby chaired.

The details of the meeting on November 3 are highly disputed.

But two written accounts passed to the Mail — at least one of which was seen by members of the board — suggest that the words ‘Nazi’, ‘swastika’ and ‘Hitler’ were used by members of Mrs Appleby’s staff during a heated conversation about the reaction of parents to the school’s efforts to educate children about race relations.

The school — which holds a tape recording of the whole conversation — denies that the contentious terms were ever ‘used to describe parents’ of pupils (many of whom, particularly Jewish ones, believe the issue is being taught in ways that are divisive and politically biased).

The Commission will not discuss whether the inflamatory terms were used elsewhere.

In a statement, the school’s spokesman did, however, concede that remarks made during the meeting ‘could cause offence to the community’.

The statement adds: ‘There were questions asked about whether the response to racism is always as strong and immediate as the response to anti-Semitism.’

One of the two controversies that predated Appleby’s departure involves long-standing complaints by parents about an ultra-‘woke’ teaching agenda she chose to introduce some 18 months ago. Pictured: ASL

One of the two controversies that predated Appleby’s departure involves long-standing complaints by parents about an ultra-‘woke’ teaching agenda she chose to introduce some 18 months ago. Pictured: ASL

Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (an influential Jewish organization based in the area) has received some details about the incident and related incidents. They document hate crimes.

‘We have been receiving disturbing reports about the American School in London,’ says a spokesman. ‘There are claims that terms like “Nazis” were used at a staff meeting. Although the school denies this extreme language referred to Jewish parents, it apparently does not dispute that these terms did appear in their discussion, which allegedly also featured language suggesting that anti-Semitism and racism are different.’

In other words: It all looks awful.

ASL’s rusty past dates back to the summer last year and the soul-searching following the death of George Floyd.

ASL felt it appropriate to stand up against racism, as many institutions do. With this in mind, Mrs Appleby announced a ‘detailed action plan’ involving sweeping changes to the school’s ‘diversity, equality and inclusivity’ [DEI] curriculum.

Parents were, according to an email, to be instructed on how to ‘raise anti-racist children’ and ‘recognise their own implicit biases’.

On paper it was a noble goal. Yet to achieve it, the principal and her senior lieutenants decided to reconfigure much of their curriculum around something called ‘critical race theory’.

This is a highly contentious academic ideology, first popularised in America, that revolves around the concept of ‘white privilege’. According to its adherents, the West is inherently racist. Citizens are either beneficiaries or victims of privilege depending on their skin colour.

The second revolves around concerning allegations that this agenda led to incidents of anti-Semitism on her watch

Second, it concerns allegations that her agenda may have led to anti-Semitic incidents while she was in charge

Teachers launched a ‘queer and questioning affinity group’ for 13- and 14-year-olds who were ‘questioning their gender expression, gender identity and/or sexuality’, or thought they might belong ‘to the LGBTQI+ spectrum’, or be ‘non-binary or gender nonconforming’ (file photo)

Teachers started a “queer-and-questioning affinity group” for teens aged 13-14 who were questioning their gender expression and/or gender identity or thought that they might be on the LGBTQI+ spectrum.

At first, Mrs Appleby’s new initiative passed without complaint. But over time, parents began to express concern about the degree to which racial and gender politics had started to influence the teaching of almost every academic subject, from literature to maths to PE, and where gym sessions were replaced by debates about ‘politics in sport’.

By the start of the year, reports had begun to filter back of teachers accusing pupils of ‘white fragility’ and suggesting that they were guilty of ‘inherited white guilt’ and ‘cultural appropriation’ because of their ethnic background.

According to other complaints, many starting to be shared on parental WhatsApp groups, pupils were also taught that they were ‘either oppressors or oppressed’, depending on their ethnicity.

In a particularly contentious move, the school had even decided to introduce racially segregated after-school clubs, in an initiative one parent branded ‘offensive and immoral’, arguing that it breached UK equalities law.

By May, many ASL parents (who hail from 50 countries and speak at least 70 languages) had come to the view that certain teachers were ‘indoctrinating’ children with hard-Left ideology.

The argument was that racial politics were counterproductive and dividing students along ethnic lines, rather than unifying them.

Some Jewish parents, who believed Black Lives Matter’s leadership to be anti-Semitic, further complained of a ‘culture of fear’ in which their children had been ostracised by peers following lessons — seemingly influenced by the DEI programme — focusing on Israel.

At one point, the head of ASL’s middle school was instructed to issue a formal apology to them, for allowing students to be shown a highly partisan video about hostilities in the Middle East.

Campaign Against Anti-Semitism also received complaints. A spokesman says it is aware of ‘concerns that the school is teaching that Jews are part of a privileged elite’, adding: ‘It is outrageous that the school seems not to have tackled its problem suitably forcefully and seriously.’

The school is seen as a ticket to top grades and the best US universities, with former footballer Thierry Henry and Hollywood actress Salma Hayek (pictured) among parents at the school gates

It is a way to get into top universities in the US, and former footballer Thierry Héliot and Hollywood actress Salma Hayek were among those who attended the school.

At pick-up, parents rub shoulders with footballers Thierry Henry and Mikel Arteta and the occasional plutocrat and oligarch

Pick-up is where parents meet Mikel and Thierry Arteta (and occasionally a plutocrat or oligarch)

There were a number of angry emails, many from high-priced lawyers. One 12-page document sent to the school’s board of trustees accused ASL of ‘institutional racism’. One of its authors compared the school to a ‘woke cult’ and added: ‘Every subject, from art to literature to history, is now being taught through a prism of race and gender, at times to very young children.’

A top London barrister, on behalf 26 ASL parents, submitted a 19-page complaint to Department for Education (DfE). It claims that the school’s teaching of race relations ‘has already become so extreme as to amount to a serious, systemic and ongoing breach of the Independent School Standards’.

The parents behind this letter, most of whom ‘are from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds’, provide half a dozen examples of what they regard as illegal teaching activity at ASL, some of which they claim breaches the 2010 Equality Act.

In one incident, in September, 15-year-old pupils were invited to use a wheel-shaped diagram (reproduced top right) to ‘audit’ their own privilege or victimhood based on ethnicity, sexuality and religion.

One child allegedly responded to the exercise by going home and ‘begging to have their DNA tested because they needed to find out what per cent victim they were’.

Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has yet to respond, although a source close to him said ‘ministers at DfE are alarmed by reports of what is going on at the school and are taking them very seriously’.

The issue of wokery in schools is undoubtedly close to Mr Zahawi’s heart. Last month he warned: ‘Schools must not promote partisan political views and should take steps to ensure the balanced treatment of political issues . . . this includes contested views about white privilege.’

These remarks are a reminder that ASL is not unique.

The school might be considered at the extreme of the spectrum due to its connections with the U.S. education system, which has more critical race theory. But there are other variations of this row playing across the nation.

Only this week, the head of Benenden, a £40,000-a-year boarding school once attended by Princess Anne and Rachel Weisz, gave a speech at a teaching conference warning parents that they needed to ‘keep up’ with their children by embracing woke ideology.

The American School in London is Britain’s most expensive day school, charging an astonishing £32,650-a-year in fees to the capital’s loftiest bankers, corporate lawyers and celebrities

The American School in London is Britain’s most expensive day school, charging an astonishing £32,650-a-year in fees to the capital’s loftiest bankers, corporate lawyers and celebrities

Last month, Tory MP Miriam Cates called for an inquiry into what she called the ‘alarming’ spread of transgender ideology in schools, alleging that children are being encouraged to change their name and identify as the opposite sex without parental knowledge or consent.

A dossier sent by the Free Speech Union to Mr Zahawi last Month focuses on the apparent politicisation in education [FSU], which campaigns against ‘cancel culture’.

It contained a collection of teaching materials obtained from the parents of children at 15 English schools where, the FSU alleges, teachers have ‘failed to comply with their duties to forbid the promotion of partisan political views’. These disputes, wherever they arise, tend to pit left-leaning academics against traditional-minded parents. This dynamic is what led to the ASL’s fireworks.

At the meeting on November 3, members of staff began discussing complaints levelled at the school’s DEI curriculum.

An unnamed teacher suggested at one particular moment that parents who send their children ASL are more likely to oppose anti-Semitism and racism than those who don’t.

The remark was criticized by colleagues because it implied that Jewish abuse is different than racism and therefore not worthy of sympathy. Several staff members raised concerns after the meeting to parents as well as members of the trustees.

One parent used an online message board viewed by the Mail to state that terms such as ‘Nazis,’ ‘Hitlers’, ‘swastikas’ and ‘skinheads’ had been used during the conversation, adding that ‘several teachers who attended were shocked’ by the tone of the discussion.

Another written account was reportedly given to different trustees and also quoted these terms.

Senior trustees are said to have heard the complaints and decided to record the meeting so teachers could hear it. It appears that Mrs Appleby resigned shortly after the meeting ended, around ten days ago.

Among those concerned by the woke-ification of British education is equalities minister Kemi Badenoch (pictured), born in London to Nigerian parents, who used a Commons speech in October to highlight the duty of schools to avoid political partisanship

Kemi Badenoch, equalities minister in Britain and born to Nigerian parents in London, is one of those who are concerned about the wake-ification of British education. She used an October Commons speech to emphasize the obligation of schools to abstain from political partisanship.

Asked about the November 3 meeting, a spokesman for the school said: ‘Teachers did not refer to parents by any of the words you’ve mentioned.

‘However, Mrs Appleby and the school were concerned that the question contrasting the responses to racism and anti-Semitism could cause offence to members of the community, and this was addressed immediately.’

Regarding Mrs Appleby’s subsequent departure, the spokesman added: ‘It is completely inappropriate for the school to comment on private board meetings or discussions related to specific individuals. The complaints process is confidential.’

Apropos allegations of wokery, the school added: ‘We are committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable and inclusive school community and firmly believe this will lead to a better future for all our children.’

However, the parents involved in the dispute believe otherwise. I gather they are now turning their attention to ‘senior members of the school’s administration and faculty’ who remain in post, alleging that they ‘continue to indoctrinate our children into this racist and toxic ideology’.

The school is expected to take the first step in forcing it to publish the transcript of the anti-Semitism meeting. However, the school refuses to do so.

Like so many of the rows about wokery taking place throughout the British school system, the one at London’s most expensive day school may have only just begun.