A letter from the Headmistress to the Habs community – Friday 5 June 2020

We put out a statement yesterday that said how we felt at Habs about the recent letter published in the Independent newspaper at the start of the week, the signatories to which included some of our alumnae. I now want to address in more detail some of the critical points that were raised in that letter. We understand that it is simply not enough to know and say that we are an open and tolerant community but that we have to demonstrate it in everything that we do. That is why we want to set the record straight and directly address some of the points raised in the powerful and well-argued letter that we know has resonated so very loudly with so many in the Habs community.

We believe that Habs is a tolerant, open and equal community which embraces difference and is proud of its diversity. It is this openness and diversity that contributes to the reputation of Habs as a school, in which students have positive relationships with each other and their teachers; it is this friendliness that is one of the key reasons why so many young people want to study at Habs.

However, it is clear that this is not the experience of all students, all the time, today and in the past. We are deeply sorry for and regret the fact that some of our students have faced racist abuse while at school. Whilst it is true that we have policies in place to deal robustly with bullying of any kind we recognise that we need to do more both to encourage victims to come forward and to create an atmosphere in which all students are confident to call out the use of offensive behaviour, including racism. We are committed to reviewing all our processes and structures in dealing with bullying or offensive behaviour. This will include more direct promotion of anti-racism through the provision for the pupils and it will include appropriate training for staff.

We have already begun a process of listening to our current students about racist attitudes at the school and individual experiences of racism. Conversations are planned to take place with alumnae in due course and we welcome a dialogue with all members of the Habs community at any time. We want to give students past and present the chance to tell us about their experiences and we look forward to continuing this process in the coming weeks and months.

We are an equal opportunities employer and work hard to make sure that our recruitment processes are fair for all. The education sector faces a challenge in recruiting teachers from different ethnic groups and those challenges are no different at Habs. We will review what more we can do to improve the effectiveness of our recruitment of staff and we commit to see if there are any aspects of our recruitment process that are left wanting.

Our curriculum is constantly evolving, and we are currently in the middle of a review of the provision for students in Middle School (Key Stage 3), including how this links with the curriculum studied by the older members of our Junior School. Improving the diversity of our curriculum, especially in its attitude to race, is a key aim of our Heads of Department to help give our students a much better understanding of the experience of others outside of their immediate sphere of understanding. We will continue to invite former students back into school to share their experiences of life after Habs to help our students gain a better insight of life away from the security of the Habs campus. We are lucky to have an engaged and active Old Girl community and look forward to working with them even more closely in the future.

We stand side by side with our black students both past and present at this time of deep unease. We remain committed to the diversity of a school community which celebrates difference of any kind including race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious, cultural and disability. We commit to calling out prejudice and discrimination wherever it occurs and in whatever form it takes. We look forward to working together to improve our school community for the benefit of all. We know that we are at the beginning of a process of change. We don’t presume to have all the answers now, but we will work tirelessly to find them.

With best wishes,

Rose Hardy
Headmistress

 

Statement – 4 June 2020

It has been deeply troubling and very sad to read recent reports that detail examples of racism within Independent Schools, including here at Habs Girls’ School.

Our ethos is to ensure that students and staff work in an environment of tolerance in which different ethnic, religious, political and cultural backgrounds are shared and celebrated. This forms a strong part of the whole school curriculum from the youngest pupils in our Junior School all the way through to the Sixth Form and prejudice and intolerance are confronted wherever they might occur.

We would like to thank all those current and former students who have positively engaged with the school in recent days. We look forward to talking with and, most importantly, listening to our alumnae to help us more widely to promote anti-racism at Habs.