The Equality and Human Rights Commission: “Young people should be able to thrive in school, without fear of being discriminated against because of their hair”
FAO: All Schools & Academies - Headteachers / Senior Leads / Behaviour Leads / Governors
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has found that discrimination within education settings related to hair or hairstyles disproportionately affects pupils with Afro-textured hair or hairstyles.
They state that “this is often because of the way some schools’ rules relating to hair or hairstyles are designed and implemented. Such rules might be embedded in school uniform or behaviour policies or be stand-alone policies related to hair or hairstyles”.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission have produced a series of resources for schools to use to ensure they are complying with legal requirements. These include:
- A decision-making tool which helps with designing appropriate policies
- A video explainer and a case study
The guidance can be found here:
The decision making tool can be found here:
The video resource which can be used for staff development or PSHE lessons can be found here:
Preventing hair discrimination in schools - YouTube
Dani Lang – Senior School Improvement Advisor for Safeguarding & Inclusion