What happens when segregated schools mix?
A new TV show follows pupils in the Midlands as they learn a vital life lesson. Joe Shute reports
When 13-yearold Omar Omar walked into his first day at Tamworth Enterprise College, he felt all eyes upon him. “A few were looking at me a bit weirdly like I was a new alien or something,” he says.
Birmingham-born, but of Somali and Yemeni descent, he remembers that “there was only one other black kid. I asked: ‘How do you deal with all these people looking at you?’”
It is no surprise the smiling boy in the oversized blazer, who hopes to work in police forensics one day, felt like a fish out of water. His race alone marks him out at the college – an overwhelmingly white school, in an overwhelmingly white town.
Some 98 per cent of pupils here are white: in Tamworth as a whole, just 5 per cent of the population are deemed ethnic minorities. According to Simon Turney, the college head teacher, that makes it the “whitest town in Staffordshire”.
Omar was attending the school as part of Channel 4’s three-part series analysing the impact of Britain’s socalled segregated schools.
According to a 2017 report, more than a quarter of primary and four in 10 secondary schools are deeply ethnically divided. Birmingham – where a primary school was recently forced to suspend lessons on LGBT rights following weekly protests from its overwhelmingly Muslim parent-base – has been highlighted as one of four areas of national concern.
The Great British School Swap (originally entitled The White Kids Are Coming) follows a dozen Year 8 and Year 9 pupils from Saltley Academy, a secondary school in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, where fewer than 1 per cent of the children are white British, and 12 pupils from Tamworth Enterprise College, as they take turns spending a week in each other’s schools.
Turney was instrumental
in persuading parents to get involved. The 60-year-old, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last Easter shortly before filming started, says he was well aware of the potential pitfalls of allowing cameras in, but felt it was a vital experience for his pupils.
“You run the risk of allowing
‘It was an opportunity for us to understand what different communities think’
children to get to 17 or 18 without having had the opportunity to understand different cultures and religions,” he says. “If we don’t do any of that work, how do the children forge those relationships themselves?”
He points out that segregated schools simply reflect the communities they serve. In an age where online algorithms insulate people from anything, or anyone, outside their comfort zone, he admits to having real
concerns about how little young people are mixing today.
The consequence of this alienation was made apparent at his school when he discovered two 14-year-old pupils had been taken on a march by some parents, organised by far-right group the Football Lads Alliance.
“There are some extreme Right-wing views in our community,” he admits.
Saltley Academy has experienced its own brush with extremism. In 2014, it was one of five city schools to be plunged into special measures by education watchdog Ofsted, after allegations of a plot by Islamists to take over their governing bodies – which became known as the “Trojan Horse” affair.
The school has been converted into an academy; it has a new leadership team, and is now rated good by Ofsted. Mike Bussey, head teacher Peter Weir’s deputy, who worked at the school during the scandal, insists it has transformed. “Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII, Trojan Horse … they’re all history now,” he says.
Seated in a nearby classroom are four of the Saltley pupils who took part in the programme. In the first joint lesson, the two groups were invited to discuss what they thought about their respective cultures: the white children were deemed to be “bacon-lovers” who go on family holidays to nudist resorts. Meanwhile, one Tamworth child said he knew Muslims believed in Allah and the prophet “Muhammad Ali”.
They also discussed racist language. Some of the Tamworth children admitted they did not realise terms that are part of the town’s lexicon, such as “half-caste”, “coloured” and “Paki”, were offensive.
“Terrorism” is another word that crops up in relation to Muslims. Saltley pupil Ibraheem Siddique, 14, who hopes to become a youth worker, is at pains to address this point. “When these terrorists claim to be Islamic, they are not,” he says.
Siddique, like many involved, admits the opportunity to be on television was a key factor in signing up. But he also wanted to address his own misconceptions, and those people might have about him.
“It was an opportunity to understand what different communities think about,” he says.
Over the two weeks, there were the sort of issues one might expect with any group of unfamiliar teenagers in the final weeks of summer term – although at Tamworth events took an ugly turn when a group of the Saltley girls were jeered at by a pupil (not part of the project) making pig noises.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed,” says Mr Turney. “The children on the project showed the right way forward.”
As well as spending time at each other’s schools, the youngsters also ventured out into their respective communities, visiting shops and eating dinner at one another’s homes. One Tamworth parent was left so confused about what to cook for her Muslim guests that she searched the supermarket in vain for a halal lettuce. Despite the two schools being only 15 miles apart, Tamworth pupil Lauren Rumney admits it felt like “going to a different country”. “I’ve never really left Tamworth,” the 15-year-old says. “Going to a different school with different people was uncomfortable. But it taught me we’re all equal. It’s not about colour or race.” Nearly one year on and many of the pupils have remained friends. They stay in touch on Snapchat and Instagram, talking about the common interests they discovered: Fortnite, rap music, make-up and films. Samina Khan, a 15-year-old from Afghanistan who arrived in Britain aged five, remains close to Tamworth pupil Emma, who she became friends with during filming. She hopes to become an art teacher and in her folder she shows me an incredibly detailed likeness she has drawn of the Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o.
“When we put our cultures aside, we are all teenagers and
‘[The programme] taught me we’re all equal. It’s not about colour or race’
like the same things,” she says. “Just because we have a different skin colour or speak a different language, that doesn’t change.”
Turney, who has worked for 38 years in education and 15 years as a headmaster, admits his diagnosis of motor neurone disease – a terminal illness which has already left him with severely reduced mobility – means he is soon to step down and most likely doesn’t have long left.
But he hopes this project will endure as a legacy. Already the schools are in discussions about keeping the pupil swap going, even if there will be no cameras.
Those who took part say they would definitely be up for a return visit.
For Omar, despite the stares, it would be an excuse to eat more Tamworth breakfast pancakes with golden syrup – a local delicacy that truly bridges the cultural divide.