Educators and representatives from the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre (SLRC) in Leicester have called on institutions to help embed racial literacy into the training and development of educators at an event in the House of Lords.
Speaking to an audience including the House of Commons Education Select Committee, Helen Hayes MP, representatives from the Department for Education, and organisations such as Show Racism the Red Card, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and The Nuffield Foundation, Dr Camille London-Miyo of the SLRC shared how its Teaching to Transform programme had already developed anti-racist teaching practices across schools in Leicestershire.
Teaching to Transform is one of the Centre’s key research programmes and is divided into three themes:
- Anti-racist teaching, which focuses on recognising and dismantling racism within schools,
- Racial literacy to support staff and students in becoming critical thinkers and resisting potentially racist or violent ideologies,
- The Stephen Lawrence Research Ambassador programme, designed to inspire young people to listen to the views of marginalised students and report findings back to their school leadership team.
Its team wants to ensure that schools across the country will safeguard against racist practices and offer institutional support to combat this in the same way that anti-bullying measures were included.
Since it was opened in 2019 by Baroness Doreen Lawrence – former 久久精品 Chancellor and mother of Stephen, who was murdered by racists in 1993 – the Centre has worked with more than 2,000 educators across approximately 100 schools in the region.
Dr London-Miyo said: “Teaching to Transform is about challenging the institutional racism that exists within education. It's about looking at the structures and processes, but also supporting staff and educators to really challenge and transform education so that it's more anti-racist and really is dealing with the ethics of equity and social justice.”
“If we understand how racism works within society, we understand the language that is used and we understand how we can challenge it, then we’re better able to equip our young people to be able to manoeuvre in a multicultural society.”
Dr Camille London-Miyo speaking at the House of Lords
The Centre has recently partnered with the Leicester Diocese, which supports 97 church schools and academies, to deliver its racial literacy teacher training.
But Dr London-Miyo says the SLRC needs more support to help it expand its work outside of Leicestershire.
She said: “We have people in Derby, Nottingham, Northamptonshire saying, ‘Can you come and talk to us about what you're doing?’ but we don’t have the capacity.”
“It is very frustrating. It shows that Leicester has the potential to be a hub that will innovate and develop this area for improvement in schools across the entire East Midlands. We just need more backing to improve our capacity.”
Kasim H Sheikh, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Social Justice and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, added: “If you were to ask me where I saw this programme in maybe three or four years' time, I think about Stephen, I think about Doreen and I think about their legacy.
“I can't think of a better tribute than for all schools, perhaps, who complete the programme to show they've become anti-racist educators, to achieve something like a national Stephen Lawrence Charter Mark, for instance.”
Why Teaching to Transform matters
Dr London-Miyo is a Black educator with over thirty years’ experience teaching in inner city schools.
Despite Leicester having no overall ethnic majority, she is disappointed to see a lack of diversity in its teaching staff, particularly in more senior positions.
Of the 22 state-run secondary schools in the city, none now have a headteacher of African heritage.
It’s the same story nationally; 83.2 per cent of teachers in state-funded schools were White British, and 91.8 per cent of headteachers in the country also identified as White British.
At a time when the government is desperately trying to recruit 6,500 more teachers there are numerous accounts of Black educators navigating racism in their workspaces. This does not encourage new potential Black educators joining the profession.
In her time as an educator, as well as her current role within the SLRC, Camille has lived experience of and has heard numerous accounts of racism in school spaces. Her research documents many of those experiences, in an attempt to suggest the urgency of a rethink in teacher training.
“Three generations of my family have been educated in the city, so I have a personal interest in ensuring we have the best deal for our young people.”
How Teaching to Transform transformed The Winstanley School
When Dave Bennett MBE first joined The Winstanley School as its head in 2017, he thought he was doing a good job building on values of kindness and compassion the school was already promoting.
The Winstanley School in Braunstone Town in the south-west of Leicester takes its cohort from a predominantly white, lower socio-economic background.
He admits that he felt like things were going well until Natasha Boyce, who was working as a teacher at the time, quietly pulled him aside and informed him a small number of students wanted to talk about their experience.
“It was a difficult 50 minutes,” he said to the audience.
“I thought everyone was really kind. But actually, I found out it was very different from that.”
Natasha Boyce
Natasha worked with Dave to partner with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre to launch the first group of Stephen Lawrence Ambassadors to help give their students more of a say in how the school operates is group of ten people, aged from 11 to 16, would actively engage in learning about social justice and racial issues, sharing what they know and learn with others.
“The introduction of the ambassadors was really about working together to establish a collaborative relationship between the students and the Centre,” Natasha said.
“The original ambassadors had a clear objective. This was to support the school with the journey of improving racial literacy.
“One of the agitations was that Black History Month is just not enough, and that signalled a real disconnection between them and the school and a lack of a sense of belonging.”
Through the scheme, the ambassadors would meet weekly and share their feedback with senior management during meetings, allowing the school to implement improvements throughout the academic year.
From the ten original ambassadors that started in 2019, there are now more than 200 across schools within the LiFE Multi-Academy Trust, where Natasha now works as an educational consultant in the trust.
Since then, the group have gone on to represent their schools at local and district youth conferences, worked in partnership with universities and communities to archive the stories of the Windrush generation, and provided support to other schools setting up Stephen Lawrence Ambassadors.
Natasha said: “The school environment feels safer. Conversations about race and difference are now in the spirit of curiosity rather than ridicule.
“Nearly all of the original ambassadors in 2019 have progressed onto university.
“Students who are less visibly cultural are being more vocal about their distinctive ways of expression and finding their voices.”
Following the successful integration of the Ambassadors, Dave and Natasha teamed with the SLRC to provide training in racial literacy to ensure its staff felt confident in teaching anti-racist practices and supporting their students in talking about racism.
Dave said: “One of our key drivers is to make sure that our young people of colour feel confident, but it also means that everyone is aware that racism is all our responsibility and challenging it in all aspects when we see it.”
The Winstanley School marks every Stephen Lawrence Day on April 22 and has organised workshops including virtual education sessions and leadership skills workshops.
How being a Stephen Lawrence Ambassador changed Joanna and Reuben
In the Cholmondeley Room of the House of Lords, overlooking the Thames, Year 11 student Joanna Trivett of Countesthorpe Academy shared the impact that being a Stephen Lawrence Ambassador had on her.
Aged just 11, Joanna sensed something was wrong with how people who looked like her were being treated across the country.
Joanna Trivett, a Stephen Lawrence Ambassador from Countesthorpe Academy
She learned about the story of Stephen’s murder at school, during Stephen Lawrence Day, and was inspired by Baroness Lawrence’s ongoing fight for justice and her strength to ensure his memory would live on.
Joanna said: “Stephen’s legacy taught me lots of things but one thing in particular stayed in my mind. If I don't speak about change, will it ever happen?
“Even being the shyest, most unsociable Year 8, I knew I wanted to make a change.
“Being a Stephen Lawrence Ambassador has taught us all compassion and given us an understanding of the people who before now we wouldn't even think of speaking to.
“It isn't enough just to be not racist. We have to oppose the venom that infects our society, the thing that separates the people who I believe were created to thrive in community.”
Joanna, now in Year 11, was one of three friends to join the ambassador programme early on and inspired another one of her friends to join the programme last year. All four were in the audience to watch Joanna speak.
She now wants to go on to university to study English Language or Art.
While the ambassador programme empowered Joanna to find her voice, it changed former Winstanley pupil, and one of the first ambassadors, Reuben Dowthwaite’s outlook on life.
Reuben Dowthwaite speaks about how being a Stephen Lawrence Ambassador shaped him
Originally wanting to study mathematics, Reuben decided instead to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics and secured a spot at the University of Oxford.
It’s here that he has been able to share what he learned through his time as an ambassador with his friends.
He said: “People have been very receptive to it, and I’ve had a lot of conversations with people about it to understand their views on situations from around the world.
“If my friends say something that I feel is a little bit off, I’ve felt confident enough to talk to them about it, pushing back a little and trying to understand why they’ve said that. A lot of my role was listening to people about why they’ve said things and then sharing my experience as an ambassador.
“It’s been a very powerful tool.”
Posted on Monday 10 November 2025