Indisputably, at Debden Park High School, the majority of students are white. In the outskirts of London, home to some of the most diverse secondary schools in the country, it is interesting to speculate over whether this has as great an impact on the way students feel towards each other as you may expect.
Although Cassandra Edwards, 15, maintains that she has never be actively discriminated against in school, she says: “I feel weird talking about culture. I was born in England, and even though I lived in Jamaica I don’t feel Jamaican, but I don’t feel fully part of the British culture either.”
Does this mean that the post-Brexit onslaught of racial division that makes students like Cassandra feel so isolated is merely that: a division within school communities? And if so, is it possible for this to be overcome, especially in schools that are virtually monocultural?
Another student claims that: “there is some racism in our school, but it’s never properly dealt with, or it’s treated as a case of one kid picking on another, as opposed to recognising that it’s actually about race.”
So perhaps the issue lies in the lack of awareness. In this case, surely the natural course of action would be for teachers to make the first step in uniting students against racism at school - but perhaps school is not the foundation of the issues surrounding racial discrimination.
If a school is made up of predominantly white students, one must make the assumption that the surrounding area is likewise. Therefore, it would surely be wiser to invest time and money into making the community itself more inclusive, encouraging the next generation of school children to regard race as yet another of our differences that make us each unique and wonderful.
In order to truly eradicate racial divides in schools where there is a predominant race, we must make giving communities a new point of view our priority, so that the “petty things like making fun of music and food,” Ashwin Gohil, 15, describes, can finally be addressed, instead of swept under the rug.
Amelie Ashton, Debden Park High School
