An investigation has revealed that a group of Sheffield schools introduced lesson plans teaching children as young as seven about “white privilege”.
Teenage pupils were taught that black people cannot be racist to white people because black people have less cultural power than white people. Younger pupils were told they had a responsibility to reduce racism and to be aware of their own white privilege, including by challenging the words or actions of friends and family.
Some lessons presented criminal justice statistics, such as higher rates of black people being stopped and searched, treating systemic racism as the primary explanation. The lesson plans were designed to teach students how to challenge the “unequal systems that surround us in society”.
The Sheffield schools behind the lesson plans are led by Notre Dame High School, which has been designated a national teaching school and is meant to lead the professional training and development of teachers.
Political Criticism of Divisive Lesson Plans
The revelations about what was being taught there have drawn criticism from some politicians.
Conservative MP and Shadow Education secretary Laura Trott called it “deeply alarming” and warned that it was teaching “divisive identity politics”. She pointed out that concepts like “white privilege” are “contested” and therefore should not be taught as accepted facts.
Neil O’Brien, another Conservative MP and shadow minister, described the lesson plans as “political indoctrination” and said that any future Conservative government would end the use of such concepts in schools.
Similar Ideas in Religious Education
This is not the first time that such disputed concepts have appeared in British schools. In 2021, new curriculum guidance directed religious education teachers to teach primary school children about white privilege. The National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) guidance said that pupils aged 8-11 should be taught that white people benefited from being white.
As part of its “anti-racist” guidance, NATRE recommended that pupils be taught why the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was “racially offensive”. Colston was a benefactor to the city but had also traded in slaves. His statue was toppled in 2020 by Black Lives Matter rioters, becoming a flashpoint in protests that year.
The pupils were not alone. Teachers were also encouraged to examine their own unconscious bias in order to help others recognize “systemic racism”. An attached glossary told teachers that jokes can be "microaggressions" that "reinforce white power", and explicitly stated that "racism is a problem for white people, rather than for black people".
The guidance also claimed that there had been a “sugar coating” of Christian history to avoid looking at the involvement of Christians in slavery. This was challenged by Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, who pointed out that Christians were instrumental in ending the Atlantic slave trade.
Harm to White Working-Class Pupils
The use of concepts like “white privilege” is not without harm. That was the finding of a British parliamentary committee. The Education Select Committee issued a report in 2021 arguing that use of the term contributed to the “neglect” of white working-class pupils. The committee described it as “politically controversial terminology” and urged schools to find “a better way to talk about racial disparities”.
The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities reached a similar conclusion, warning that use of the term could be "divisive".
Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert of the NGO Don’t Divide Us agreed, arguing that seeing society primarily through the lens of race only reinforces the centrality of race to identity. She also warned that prioritizing “social justice” over empiricism risks endangering important freedoms developed in the West.
The committee report noted that, among pupils eligible for free school meals, those from white British backgrounds were less likely to perform well in exams and showed lower than expected levels of development.
Robert Halfon, who was a Conservative MP at the time, warned that white British pupils were the “largest disadvantaged group” and argued that their situation demonstrated the limited relevance of the concept of white privilege.
Despite this, Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said that the committee’s discussion of white privilege was not helpful. He claimed that schools provide “opportunities for discussion around issues in a sensitive, balanced and measured way”.
The Case for Legislation
Although concepts such as white privilege remain disputed and often fail to reflect social reality, they continue to be promoted in parts of the education sector.
The defensive response from some teaching institutions, along with their explicit focus on turning pupils into activists, points to deeper political motivations.
This has continued despite repeated criticism from politicians and other institutions. For critics seeking to restore balance in schools, that persistence suggests legislation may be the only effective response.