LSBC Awards: Hackney Gazette Talking Point

Last Friday (October 1) I held my annual achievement awards ceremony, London Schools and the Black Child (LSBC) at the House of Commons.

I have held these awards celebrating outstanding black students for the last 4 years and I am always humbled by the sheer determination of some of the young people I get to meet.

Many of the young people have not just achieved A*’s across the board but have often overcome some sort of adversity to do so.

Some have had to care for family members, have grown up in cramped flats or on dangerous estates or without the encouragement that many of us take for granted.

All have put aside these difficulties to achieve their very best without complaint.

The winners will now get mentored by UBS bank, who sponsor the ceremony every year, and I have no doubt many will go on to have successful and fulfilling careers.

The kind of determination and discipline that they have already shown at such a young age is extremely commendable .

The ceremony not only gives a chance to acknowledge great achievement but also to change the record often run over and over by the press about black education.

Recently much rubbish has been banded around in the press about how black children do not concentrate at school which is why they do not succeed.

I could not disagree more, and the youngsters I met last week certainly do not suggest there is any truth in such claims.

Some kids do not concentrate. But it is not an excuse on which we can pin black students alone.

We start a dangerous narrative if we continue to peddle such nonsense.

I have seen over the last 10 years a great improvement in the achievement of black students – in particular black boys.

They are no longer typically the lowest achieving group at school. They are no longer underperforming. They are no longer leaving school without qualifications.

Things have changed, partly thanks to improvements in methods of teaching.

Some schools I have visited in Hackney have had special focus on Afro-Caribbean groups to boost achievement.

This is something I am pleased to see, and we should target vulnerable groups to stop them falling behind their peers.

I always remember one of my first encounters with Sir Michael Wilshaw, before he became head of Mossbourne.

He was then headteacher at a school in Newham where he had become famous for his strict discipline which was working wonders, especially among black boys.

On that visit, he showed me firsthand how students were handed the responsibility for their own success, and expected to live up to that success, or explain themselves.

The fact they were answerable to strict role models, made it clear there was no choice but to succeed, and students took on the responsibility and thrived as a result.

Learning and doing well was something to be respected, not disrespected.

Sir Michael has brought the same success to Mossbourne where 90% of students now achieve 5 A* to C grades at GCSE.

While Hackney still does have problems with gangs and postcode wars, when I visit schools in the B orough, I meet polite, well rounded young men and women who are a credit to their schools and to our borough.

We must not allow the many to be tarred with the same brush as the few.

Parents have played a great role in encouraging this change by not allowing their children to fail.

Today (October 7), I find out if I will be one of the few black women to ever take up a role in shadow cabinet.

This is something I know my parents would have been extremely proud of and that means a great deal to me; even now I am a mother.

I never intended to pursue a front bench career but having spent three months travelling up and down the country speaking to party members, I felt I couldn’t not play a part in changing our party for the better and bringing people back to Labour.

I have been honoured to represent the people of Hackney North and Stoke Newington for the past 23 years, and whatever the result, I will continue to do so with renewed vigour and the same sense of pride I have always felt.

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