Racist abuse cause of 71 school suspensions - FOI

The States said the figures related to incidents of abuse, not number of students

More than 70 suspensions in Guernsey's school system have been due to racist abuse, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

The States confirmed 71 incidents of racist abuse had taken place across all of Guernsey's fully States-maintained schools between September 2021 and October 2025.

Four suspensions were recorded in primary schools with the remaining 67 instances occurring in secondary schools, statistics from grant-aided colleges did not fall within the remit of the FOI.

The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture said the curriculum across all States of Guernsey schools was "carefully designed to promote respect, equality and inclusion".

Reflecting on the figure, the committee said: "This does not necessarily equate to 71 different students, as the same student might have been suspended on more than one occasion for the same type of incident.

"For the academic years 2021/2022 to 2024/2025, there were on average 6,474 students enrolled across all of Guernsey's fully States-maintained schools at any point in time.

"The purpose of a suspension is to provide a consequence for behaviour that challenges the safety and security of any learner or staff member, but it is also an opportunity to ensure support strategies can be put in place and lessons are learnt to prevent suspension occurring again.

"Nine States-maintained schools have achieved the Gold Rights Respecting Schools Award, and a further five have achieved silver."

A Gold Rights Respecting School has fully embedded the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into its ethos and practice across all aspects of school life.