Another Bristol school to sever ties with Edward Colston
The Dolphin School will change its emblem, which was inspired by the Colston family crest.
Last updated 20th Oct 2020
Another school in Bristol has voted to erase its connection to the slave trader Edward Colston.
Two weeks after Colston's Girls School announced it would change its name, The Dolphin School in Montpellier now say they will change their emblem.
It comes from the Colston family crest which features the animal, but the Merchant Venturers Trust, which runs the school, says its name will stay the same,
"Following a transparent consultation, Venturers Trust has announced that The Dolphin School in Montpelier will keep its name but change its emblem," a statement from the Trust - which also runs Colston's Girls School - reads.
"As well as hosting an online public survey, the school delivered a series of lessons and workshops for pupils focusing on the curriculum-based enquiry ‘What’s in a name?, alongside interactive sessions for parents and carers to help stimulate discussion at home.
"The process concluded with a ballot amongst the immediate school community, with the questionnaire available in English, Sudanese and Somali."
Staff, parents and pupils (63 percent of whom are from a black or minority ethnic background) were asked if they would rather have both the name and emblem changed, have just the emblem changed or keep both.
The Trust says from 460 votes, 46% voted to keep the name but change the emblem, which was the majority vote of three options.
The initial public survey came to the same conclusion, with 46% of 68 respondents also voting to change only the emblem.
"Possibly the reasons are, the name dolphin has, of itself, no connection with Colston," chair of the governors Chris Patterson told us.
"They are intelligent animals, they are cute, curious animals, they are social animals...you have a school of dolphins, and they are community based.
"So as an animal it has got a huge parallel with what we are trying to do as a school and I think parents like the name and always have done."
But Mr Patterson admitted that no one at the school was aware of its links to the slave trader until the the toppling of the Colston statue and the consultation at Colston's Girls School, drew attention to the issue.
"I don't know how it (The Dolphin School) arrived at the name and emblem that it did," he said.
"I wasn't there at the time of the school's creation and in fact I think probably only one governor and one member of staff was...so I think we were probably blissfully ignorant of any potential association a dolphin had (with Colston) until very recently."
Going forward, the school says things like uniforms and school branding will need to change, but they will not be made instantly.
"We're absolutely mindful of the cost of uniform and the difficulty that would rise if people have to change immediately," Mr Patterson added.
"So we're certainly not proposing to make any uniform change compulsory for at least September."
A shortlist of possible illustrators who could create a new emblem will be drawn up over the next few weeks.