Join author, broadcaster, educator, and journalist Jeffrey Boakye to mark the publication of I Heard What You Said, a necessary call to action over an education system that is failing its Black students and students of colour.

The event will initially be broadcast on 6th July at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to a week after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for one week.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Why have so many of our young people witnessed racist language in an educational setting? Why are such large numbers of black students excluded for ‘disruptive behaviour’ compared to their equally disruptive white peers? How it is possible that in 2019 only 7% of British children’s books featured a main character who was black or minority ethnic, up from just 1% in 2017?

In conversation for this event, Jeffrey considers the answers to those questions, sharing a series of eye-opening encounters based on the often challenging and sometimes outrageous things people have said to him or about him.

As a rare Black, male teacher – an English teacher who has had to teach problematic texts – his very existence is a provocation to the status quo, giving him a unique perspective on the UK’s classrooms. What is it like to be on the margins of the British education system?

Hugely engaging and enlightening, this is event promises to highlight the failures of the British education system and offers a searing vision for how we can dismantle racism in the classroom and do better by all our students in the future.

‘Nails what it is to wear the skin we do in an alabaster space. Revealing and beautifully written.’ David Harewood

‘Makes a powerful case.’ Rt Hon Lady Hale