The Church of England is aiming to more than double the number of UK minority-ethnic (UKME) headteachers across schools in England in the next five years through a new leadership scheme.
Its Leaders Like Us scheme, which is now open for applications, aims to equip UKME teachers with the skills for headship, including through shadowing, mentoring and networking.
It is open to teachers in any state school in England - not just those that are part of a Church of England diocese.
There are currently fewer than 400 headteachers from UKME backgrounds in more than 20,000 schools in England, the Church said. But one in every three school students is from a UKME background.
The Church said it did not have these figures specifically for Church of England schools.
A recent report from the National Foundation for Educational Research showed that the underrepresentation of people from Asian, black, mixed and other ethnic backgrounds is most pronounced in schools at senior leadership and headship levels.
It highlighted how 96 per cent of headteachers are from white ethnic backgrounds, compared with 83 per cent of people in the wider population.
The Church of England has now set the goal of recruiting 450 teachers and supporting them into headship, including 50 in the first cohort. The scheme will formally launch in January next year but applications are already open.
Increasing diversity in school leadership
The scheme has been put together with the help of headteachers from minority-ethnic backgrounds. The Church said the programme is based on research as well as heads’ own experiences of getting into school leadership.
It has four strands: accredited training, shadowing an experienced headteacher, and mentoring and networking together as a cohort of leaders.
Aleishia Lewis, an acting headteacher from a primary school in Southend, Essex, who is involved in the programme, said: “I have been on many leadership training courses over the years where I have been the only person who is not from a white background in the room. I know that nobody there could understand what I was experiencing, and I think, ‘How good would it have been to have this support in place?’”
Ms Lewis told Tes that the programme would help to develop a community of leaders who could provide support to each other, as well as being mentored by successful heads from minority-ethnic backgrounds.
“We want to identify and break down barriers that are preventing people from global majority backgrounds from moving into leadership roles,” she said.
Data shows that teachers from UKME backgrounds are less likely to progress to senior positions within their schools than their white peers, becoming increasingly under-represented the more senior the role.
Bola-Alysia Ayonrinde, the Church of England’s national education lead for racial justice, said: “The research is clear that when children are taught by teachers and leaders who look like them, this is of significant benefit in all aspects of their education. It enables them to flourish.
“The Church of England is committed to supporting children and adults, and every member of staff in our schools who wants to aspire to leadership should be given the opportunity and support to do so.
“The evidence is clear that diverse teams are more effective and more creative, and help to create numerous opportunities for both staff and pupils.”
The programme comes amid recent warnings that a lack of representation among teachers may have contributed to a widened GCSE attainment gap for students from black Caribbean backgrounds.
These comments came after the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) report Race and Ethnicity found that the GCSE attainment gap for black Caribbean students had widened.
While the research found that the attainment gap between black Caribbean pupils and white British pupils had narrowed up until 2013, it had widened over the past nine years.
Professor Heidi Mirza, co-author of the report and professor of race, faith and culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, said one worry was that pupils did not see teachers from their communities “thriving in schools”.
Earlier this year the government was told that it must prioritise promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in schools if it was serious about improving the recruitment and retention of teachers and other school staff.
A joint open letter published by 15 organisations argued that a “sector-wide approach was essential to see progress” that “really must be matched by effective support from government”.
Signatories including the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT), the National Governance Association (NGA) and the Independent Schools Council (ISC) called on the Department for Education to embed diversity and inclusion “across all facets of its work” and provide “appropriate funding”.
