We were so grateful for ACEN’s support, and given the sensitive nature of the project worked with us on, we’ve focussed on the policy side of our work together, which we found helpful and which has fed into our most recent review of our parental complaints procedure. ACEN provided very helpful input into our policies. The team were wonderful to work with. They took the time to understand, and were proactive and thorough in their advice. We’re grateful for their considered support throughout the process and feel this will help us better support our parent and pupil body.

Listening to parents and carers has been such a key part of our inclusion work to date. Having Aisha facilitate a confidential, closed-door session with parents and carers of pupils with African and Caribbean heritage in June 2021 was so vital to this work. Their expert navigation of the experiences and stories, and skilled prioritisation of key recommendations cemented the voices of our families in our ongoing commitment to anti-racism”. In addition, having Shola and Aisha observe our recent curriculum and pastoral update events for parents and carers of pupils with African and Caribbean heritage was, as ever, enormously valuable. They were able to get a sense of our progress on their recommendations for us and gave us valuable feedback on how the events were run and received from an outside parent perspective. Being able to reflect with them afterward was so helpful!”

Norwich School has had the pleasure of working with the African Caribbean Education Network on several occasions. Recently we have engaged with the ‘Safe space workshops for Black pupils’ which have been received extremely well. Shola was able to facilitate a positive session and the pupils benefited greatly. We are looking forward to having Shola back again throughout the year to continue this work.

The African Caribbean Education Network’s annual conferences are a consistent success, that always provide valuable insight into integrating anti-racism into education. We would particularly like to commend their most recent conference due to the excellent pupil session offered. Our pupils really valued the experience and left the conference excited and enthused. 

We’re delighted to be working with ACEN. As the best of critical friends, they are helping us all in the Dulwich College community – pupils, staff and parents – to grow in confidence in talking about race and promoting racial equity. I’d describe them as offering a listening service: they don’t pontificate; they look to understand where you are and what you are already doing in regard to diversity and inclusion and then they help you move forward from there, step by step, in a way that feels meaningful and sustainable.

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