Anti-racism classes are now being taught at the King’s former boarding school

• Aparna Sreevalsan
• 17 July, 2023

THE ELITE Scottish boarding school that King Charles III attended, has started teaching anti-racism to its students.

Gordonstoun, co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Scotland that costs some boarders about £50,000 annually, is among one of the clients of the racial equity analytics firm Flair*.

The Premier League, BT, and Marie Curie are just a few of the 100 clients that has signed on with this firm.

The school has hired the 2020-founded company, according to the company’s website, to “lay the right foundations to measure and progress racial equity”.

Following the distribution of a survey about racial diversity at Gordonstoun to both staff and students, the school “quickly” implemented a number of initiatives targeted at addressing issues of equality, according to Flair.

These included establishing two new prefect positions—a captain of equality, diversity, and inclusion, and a captain of racial equality—launching a PSHE curriculum (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) to develop targeted lessons on anti-racism, and conducting a curriculum audit across all subject areas.

According to the firm, the school also established “a network of students whose voices will help to lead change” and changed “the displays across all curricular areas to show greater diversity, particularly with regard to role models”.

Following the survey, the company utilised the results to characterise the school’s diversity and make an effort to gauge the frequency of racism, how staff and students would likely react in such a situation, and if race served as a “barrier” to feeling included.

It occurs two years after the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard testimony from a former student who attended Gordonstoun from 1979 to 1982 that children there regularly displayed in racist and sexist behaviour.

The former student said before the inquiry committee that Gordonstoun’s professors lacked limits and that she had unsuccessfully attempted to have herself expelled after feeling uncomfortable there.

The school apologised at the time to anyone who suffered abuse in its care.
The school was founded in 1934 and was given its name after the 150-acre estate Sir Robert Gordon owned in the 17th century.

Three generations of the royal family have attended this institution, including Prince Philip and his three sons, Charles, Edward, and Andrew, as well as his daughter Princess Anne’s children, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall.

Prince William and Harry attended Eton College near Windsor, Berkshire.

 

*Flair is a national recruitment agency specialising in the supply of temporary and permanent consultants to leading brands in department and retail stores across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.