Schools
Understanding how school systems, practices and decisions shape the experiences of Black children.
Everyday decisions about behaviour, discipline, communication and support have lasting consequences for how children experience school, and whether they feel they belong there.
For Black children, those decisions can be shaped by racialised assumptions that affect how their behaviour is interpreted and responded to. Because incidents and concerns are usually dealt with one at a time, these differences are easy to miss. Each decision can look reasonable on its own. Taken together, they can form a pattern.
The Esther Practice’s Schools Gap Diagnostic is an independent, evidence-based review of how policies, procedures and decision-making work in reality. It draws together the perspectives of pupils, parents and carers, and staff alongside the school’s own records, to identify recurring patterns, assess their impact and demonstrate where change is needed to address the patterns that cause racialised harm.
It is designed for schools, academy trusts and local authorities that want to understand how their systems are experienced, identify issues that would otherwise go unnoticed, and strengthen fairness, consistency and accountability.
How the Schools Gap Diagnostic Works
1. Enquiry and Scoping
The commissioning school, academy trust or local authority agrees a defined concern, the scope of the diagnostic and the evidence required.
2. Account Gathering
Evidence is gathered from agreed sources, which may include children and young people, parents and carers, staff, and governors or trustees.
Each group's account is considered separately, with appropriate consent and safeguarding arrangements.
Children's accounts are considered in their own right, recognising their limited opportunities to challenge how adults interpret or record their experiences.
3. Pattern Analysis
The evidence is analysed to identify recurring patterns of racialised harm, the organisational practices and decisions that contribute to them, their consequences, and gaps in accountability.
4. Report and Debrief
A written diagnostic report presents evidence-supported findings, their limitations and identified intervention points. Findings are discussed in a leadership or governance session.
What You Receive
The Schools Gap Diagnostic provides an independent, evidence-based report examining how school policies, everyday practices and decision-making processes shape the experiences of Black children and their families.
The report provides:
A clearer picture: An examination of how different experiences and perspectives relate to the school's existing processes.
Patterns and recurring themes: Identification of issues that may not be apparent when incidents or concerns are considered individually.
Evidence-based findings: Clear distinctions between what the evidence demonstrates, what it suggests and where further examination may be needed.
Areas for improvement: Identification of processes, practices or decision points where changes could strengthen fairness, consistency and accountability.
Findings and Debrief
A structured discussion of the findings with the commissioning body, including their implications and opportunities for organisational improvement.
Explore the Schools Gap Diagnostic
Every school has systems for managing behaviour, responding to concerns and making decisions about children. Understanding how these systems are experienced by Black children and their families, and whether they operate fairly and consistently, is an important part of effective school leadership.
The Esther Practice works with schools, academy trusts and local authorities to examine these processes through independent, evidence-based analysis.
Get in touch to explore how the Schools Gap Diagnostic could support your setting.
The Esther Practice does not accept commissions where there is a conflict of interest with the practitioner’s other professional roles. Any affiliation is declared on the intake form and clarified at the scoping call before any work is agreed.