Anti-racism at Guildhall School

Read the latest updates in our Equality and Diversity and Inclusion statement.

We issued a statement on 7 June that acknowledged that although there has been progress in some areas of our work, there has not been in others. We recognise that there is a long way to go, and that we have a responsibility to act now.

Following feedback from staff, students and alumni to our statement, and recognising that the School has previously been far too slow to address experiences of racism, we have been working intensively to ensure we respond as quickly, and as meaningfully, as possible. This update is to let our external community know what we have been doing in the last few weeks to address and dismantle racism in our School, and what actions we will be taking over the coming weeks, months and years.

• As a first step, the School has brought in an external specialist in equality, diversity and inclusion to help structure an anti-racism working group which will be formed in the most representational and intersectional way possible.

  The working group will set a detailed agenda for the Senior Management Team to implement as we work towards becoming an actively anti-racist organisation. Its recommendations will look at representation across the staff and student bodies, our faculty curricula and artistic programming, staff and student training and resources, and many other issues. It will be the responsibility of the Senior Management Team to implement this work.
   

• This specialist is also facilitating a number of ‘listen and learn’ groups with staff and students, which are now underway. The feedback from these groups will directly inform the recommendations of the working group.
   
• Once the working group has made its recommendations, it will oversee the reformulation of the School’s Equality & Inclusion group into a Committee, which will be responsible for addressing all forms of marginalisation and discrimination over the longer term, as part of the School’s overall governance structure.
   
• The School will also appoint a senior post to lead on Equality & Diversity across the School.
   
• We are currently reviewing the School’s student complaints procedure (when a student makes a complaint against another student) to ensure it is as transparent as possible. Going forward, a summary of the findings will be reported to the original complainant.
   
• We have committed to providing clearer guidance about how to make a complaint about a staff member, and to whom.
   
• We have increased the provision of mental health support for Black students, and a reflective group has also been set up, run by counsellors within Student Affairs, open to all students across the School. This group is a safe, confidential space to talk about the impact of racism and the Black Lives Matter movement on students’ lived experience within the School and beyond.

We have pledged to take all of this work forward as a matter of urgency.

In addition, recognising that much of the feedback we have received has related to the Acting programme, we have issued an Action Plan specific to that programme. Acting staff and students have fed back on this plan. The Acting Action Plan includes the following additional commitments:

• We have set up an Acting Advisory Group for change, membership of which aims to be as intersectionally representative as possible and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis
   
• We are conducting a complete review of the Acting programme – its curriculum, culture and programming, with a view to decolonising our curricula and diversifying our repertoire
   
• We are reviewing the way we train staff within the Acting programme, and providing specific resources for education in anti-racism, allyship and unconscious bias
   
• We are committed to appointing more Black teachers and teachers of colour to work within the Acting programme, and will ensure that our recruitment processes engage with, and actively encourage applications from, people who are traditionally underrepresented within our sector
   
• We are creating a process for anonymous reporting of microaggressions
   
• We are working with a number of external experts, including our partners at the Diversity School Initiative

This Action Plan is part of our initial response to structural racism in the Acting programme. We recognise that there is still much work to do.

I would like to thank everyone who has input so thoughtfully to the conversation so far, and to those who have had the courage to speak out. I look forward to updating you further as our work progresses.

Lynne Williams
Principal