Mother sent school letter in Hindi despite not speaking language

A school sent a letter written in Hindi to a pupil’s mother even though she did not speak the language.

Raheela Ahmed with her children Aysha (front), Jan (back left) and Amer (back right) Photo: North News

3:00PM BST 04 May 2012

Raheela Ahmed, who speaks English and Punjabi, claims she was sent the letter from the Archibald First School in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, because of her Asian surname.

Mrs Ahmed, from Seaton Burn, North Tyneside, claimed she was a victim of racism.

The letter, sent last week, outlined the times their daughter Ayshe, eight, could be dropped off at school because the family had been too early on previous occasions.

While school officials denied the mother of three’s claims of racism, they apologised for the “translation error”.

But Mrs Ahmed, a qualified classroom assistant who operates a newsagent business with her husband Mohammed, said she was “really offended” by the letter.

“It is insulting to send me a letter in another language,” said Mrs Ahmed, who moved to Britain 15 years ago.
“They’ve just assumed because of my surname that I speak one of those languages.
“You’re trying to be racist to me – this is how I felt when I got the letter.”
She added: “We get all our letters sent out in English – I’ve never had anything sent to me other than in English because I understand it.”
Julia Bayes, the school’s head teacher, apologised for the “translation error in the note we sent”.
She added: “We take communicating with all our parents very seriously, however, we accept that a mistake was made on this occasion.
“It was never our intention to cause Mrs Ahmed any offence and we will take greater care in future when communicating with all of our parents.
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