Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the NIA Academy on its obligations under section 9 of the Equality Act 2010.

The Secretary of State has asked the Regional Director to speak to Haringey Council and Haringey Education Partnership about their work with the Northampton International Academy (NIA). They confirmed the initiative was set up to address large and longstanding differences in attainment between black heritage students and white British students in Haringey. Whilst the initiative is targeted towards black heritage students, it is open to pupils of all ethnicities. They also confirmed that the programme does not introduce pupils to critical race theory.

The Department’s guidance to schools on political impartiality is clear. Schools must remain politically impartial and should be mindful of the need not to promote partisan political views to pupils.

As an out of school setting, the NIA Academy is not regulated under education or childcare law. This means that the Department does not set the admissions framework for these settings, and so the Department has not contacted the organisation directly.