Anti-racist nursery course ‘poisons and divides infants’

Diversity training used by Labour councils is ‘deeply sinister’ and ‘brainless nonsense’, claims Tory MP

COUNCILS have drafted in “Maoist” diversity consultants to “decolonise the mindsets” of nursery staff, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

At least four Labour-run major public sector authorities have worked with the Black Nursery Manager, which runs Zoom diversity training to explore the concept of race and culture with children under five. One of the consultancy’s two courses is titled “inclusion in role play for the under 5’s”, which gives nursery staff practical strategies they can “embed in order to work towards decolonising their mindsets before they decolonise the play spaces”.

The firm is run by Liz Pemberton, a former nursery manager, who tweeted last year under the Black Nursery Manager banner that she “hate[s] the regulatory body and the Government”, adding: “They’re all agents of white supremacy.”

Last night, Sir John Hayes, a former education minister, vowed to write to Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, demanding an investigation and called the training “brainless nonsense” that is “deeply sinister”.

The decolonising course includes advice on “how to audit the dressing up box” by avoiding racial stereotyping through pantomime costumes.

While the training itself is delivered privately on Zoom, Ms Pemberton, from Birmingham, has written in blogs that “white supremacy is woven into the fabric of how society is built” and said “we live in a racist society”.

The Black Nursery Manager’s Twitter account has criticised “how early the violence of whiteness starts” and said that “structural racism is upheld by local authorities and regulatory bodies in the decimation of early years settings with particular demographics across race and class that don’t “fit’.”

But the group says it is “working [with] local authorities, early years organisations, primary school teachers and other professionals in the sector”.

Nottingham City Council ran three sessions with the group last month, at a cost of between £45 and £85 per delegate. Early Years Wales, the Welsh Government’s provider, ran a webinar in January, Islington Council, in north London, held a webinar with the group last year, and Bristol Early Years – which works in partnership with the city’s council – will host one this month.

Sir John said: “This is the corruption of the youngest children of all.

“Infants are being subjected to the most poisonous and divisive kind of dogma, which [is] damaging socially.”

Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, a former teacher and education researcher at the campaign group Don’t Divide Us, branded the training “very Maoist”.

The Black Nursery Manager defended its work last night. Ms Pemberton said “My work to date has highlighted the [trepidation] from white early years educators about how to [challenge] incidents of racism”.

Nottingham City Council said “schools, academies and providers who took part paid for their places, meaning there was no cost to the authority”.

A Welsh Government spokesman said it had “commissioned a range of educators to present [training] to our member organisations”, in line with its devolved Race Equality Action Plan.

Bristol City Council said it had no input nor say in the commercial side of Bristol Early Years Teaching Hub. Islington Council did not respond to a request for comment.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Councils [must] address certain issues in a balanced [way].”