Cardiff head teacher who faced racism fights for change

Cardiff head teacher who faced racism fights for change

One of Wales' ethnic minority head teachers has told of the racism she has experienced in her career in a bid to bring about change.

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Reena Patel said she was called racist names by children when working as a supply teacher in Wales.

She said she was previously turned down for a head teacher job and told she "didn't reflect the community".

She has begun work to make her school anti-racist, starting with training for its predominantly white teachers.

Nine in 10 of the 480 children at her school, Kitchener Primary in Cardiff, are from an ethnic minority. However all but one of its teachers are white.

"The term white privilege makes you feel threatened, it makes you feel you are being racist and it's not," said Mrs Patel, who is one of just five head teachers in Wales from an ethnic minority.

"When you work in a diverse school you do think you're anti-racist automatically because you feel that you do understand our children's needs, but it is important to reflect on your own privileges…

"They [her teachers] believe that they're anti-racist and being part of an ethnic minority group myself, I'm quite sensitive hearing certain things that happen."

She added: "It's no-one's fault but I'm quite sensitive to it so I know that maybe when you are of white heritage you may not believe that certain obstacles are there for our children.

"It can be as small as putting in an application form, that's really difficult for some of our families, and it's important to understand that you may not understand those obstacles but people who look like me do."