Yvonne Conolly received so many racist threats when she took over as head of a North London primary in the late 1960s that she needed a bodyguard to go with her to school.

But she stood firm, realising that as Britain’s first black female headteacher, she was leaving a legacy that would benefit generations to come.

More than 50 years later, tributes are being paid to her by HRH The Prince of Wales, the prime minister and education secretary Gavin Williamson - as tonight she receives the 2020 Honorary Fellow of Education award from the Naz Legacy Foundation*.

Exclusive: ‘Teachers’ racist attitudes stuck in 1980s’

Racism: Stephen Lawrence’s mother challenges minister over school racism

Related: My ‘outstanding’ school is structurally racist

Back in 1969, when she took over as headteacher of Ring Cross primary in Holloway, someone threatened to burn it down.

She also received letters containing press cuttings of stories about her - but with her face scribbled out. And she said the racism was coming “from the black side as well” after a letter accused her of becoming the headteacher of “a white man’s school”.

‘We had to start from the beginning’

She tells the story of how, as a headteacher, she showed pupils that “we are all the same but different” by inviting her dentist, who was black, into school to give a talk.

“The children all sat there and I could see everybody’s mouth was open. They couldn’t believe that a dentist was black,” she tells Tes.

“Using representatives from different ethnic groups to show achievement can help children to realise [that] ‘I can do it too’,” she adds.

She herself, of course, is such a representative.

As a headteacher, she became a member of the multi-ethnic inspectorate created by the ILEA [Inner London Education Authority] in 1978, in which, she says, “we had to start from the beginning with the whole business of framing practices and policies for our schools, including looking at racism and anti-racism.”

She says: “For the first time [we] looked at [the situation and said]: ‘My goodness, who are these children we are teaching? They speak different languages, they look different, we need resources for them.’”

‘In my class, there was no bullying and no name-calling’

Ms Conolly later became an Ofsted inspector and was chair of the Caribbean Teachers’ Association.

Today, she still thinks along the lines of how to promote multi-culturalism in schools and believes trainee teachers need help in how to deal with racism in the classroom.

She tells Tes: “The first things I look at as a former teacher, headteacher and inspector is classroom management because that’s a very big difficulty, particularly for younger teachers. How do you organise your classroom?

“There’s a whole feeling, an atmosphere of fairness, which should be linked to the children and they should understand that. They should understand the rules. What do you really stand for as a teacher? In my class [there was] no bullying and no name-calling. And I think resources are important because if children have opportunities to read stories and books that embrace other cultures, this is also a help.”

Royal tribute

Ms Conolly, 81, has one daughter, aged 51, and her grandson is 26.

She had done three years of teacher training in Jamaica prior to arriving in Britain in 1963 as part of the Windrush generation.

Originally intending to stay only three years, she never imagined she would be at the centre of a storm a few years later as a pioneer for other black teachers.

HRH The Prince of Wales tonight pays tribute To Ms Connolly in a clip on YouTube in which he says: “I cannot begin to imagine the character and determination she must have shown to lead the way for black educators 50 years ago.”

Also paying tribute, along with other key black figures at the start of Black History Month, prime minister Boris Johnson says on Twitter: “Throughout her 40-year career she inspired and mentored not only her own charges but also generation of educators…Yvonne received so many threats that she needed to take a bodyguard with her to school.”

And Gavin Williamson, also on YouTube, says she remains a mentor for BAME teachers. He says: “The challenges and obstacles which those like Yvonne overcame stand as an example for all of us to learn from and be inspired by.”

‘Don’t try and eat an elephant all at once’

So how does she overcome such obstacles and what’s the secret of dealing with stress?

It’s the same mindset with which she’s dealing with cancer, and it’s also a way teachers can reduce stress.

“There’s a phrase which says the best way to eat an elephant is bit by bit,” she tells Tes.

“So instead of looking at the big, big picture all the time, just sort of narrow things down and look at things on a daily basis.”

She adds: “I feel humbled to have become Britain’s first female black headteacher. I think it is an important achievement which has opened doors for more women like me. I also hope that I leave a legacy that many in my community will benefit from for generations to come.”

*The award is from the Naz Legacy Foundation, a charity established to continue the legacy of the late Naz Bokhari OBE. He was the first Muslim head of a secondary school (Ernest Bevin College, in south London) where he taught the current London mayor Sadiq Khan