For millions of families across the UK, September meant the start of a new school term. And while many children would have been excited to reunite with their classmates after the summer break, some Black and minority ethnic children would have been dreading the thought of walking back through the school gates.

New research from the Department for Education has found that between 2020-21 and 2024-25 there was a sharp increase in suspensions over racist, homophobic and disablist abuse in schools, with race-related abuse accounting for 79% of the reasons among these categories (54,843 suspensions and 295 permanent exclusions).