Pimlico Academy and the politicisation of the playground

The strange tale of Pimlico Academy, the central London school roiled by ‘anti-racist’ protests, shows us that the culture war now consumes all before it. No institution or arena of life can carry on unmolested by our overheated discussions about race and identity. The politicisation of absolutely everything has, perhaps inevitably, reached the playground.

Daniel Smith was, until this week, headteacher of Pimlico Academy. He resigned yesterday following months of student and staff protests over the school’s uniform policy, traditional ‘kings and queens’ curriculum and, most scandalously of all, its flying of the Union flag. All this, pupils and teachers said, reflected a cruel, provocative and even racist ethos on the part of the school and the academy trust that runs it.

Much of this focused on the school’s ban on hairstyles that ‘blocked the views of others’ and hijabs that were ‘too colourful’. The policy was ‘utterly unremarkable’, according to Tom Bennett — a teacher and government adviser on school behaviour. 

Nevertheless, it was interpreted as an attack on Afro hair and Muslims.