I am the assistant to the CEO of our small Multi Academy Trust of special schools for autistic children and Head of Executive Services which means I look after the Trust Executive Board generally. Alongside this I am also the EDI Strategic Lead for the whole Trust. I lead on the Trust’s EDI strategy and work with our EDI Partnership Board, made up of EDI champions in each of our schools with protected characteristics.
I really enjoy this part of my role as EDI is something I have always felt really strongly about and have always been particularly passionate about fighting racism since childhood. This passion has only increased since I met my husband and now that I have two mixed race children.
I want to ensure that our Trust is a lovely place to work for all our staff; I want everyone to be happy at work and feel they are heard, that they belong and that they are represented. I think we have an opportunity to create a really inclusive environment for everyone and for all protected characteristics. It’s not about putting a tick in a box but it’s about putting EDI at the forefront of absolutely everything we do so that it’s a golden thread running through everything.
I believe it’s absolutely essential that our colleagues in schools recognise the systemic racist structures in our society today and the impact this has on global majority colleagues and students. As all of our students are autistic, many of them face challenges with the intersectionality of other protected characteristics.