Winston Churchill and JK Rowling to be dropped as building names of UK school following accussations of racism and bullying

The letter said Sir Winston Churchill and JK Rowling were no longer "suitable" for the school and did not represent their views.

According to The Daily Mail, the note, which was marked as being sent from the students, called wartime Prime Minister Churchill was "a figure who promoted racism and inequality, unfairly imprisoning and torturing many."

The letter added that Harry Potter author JK Rowling was not a suitable representative of the school due to her comments regarding the trans community.

One parent told The Mail, "I am surprised about Winston Churchill, I think we do need to honor his achievements in history. He helped us fight back the evil of Hitler's Nazi Germany - surely he deserves to be celebrated for this."

The letter added that 'Intolerance and discrimination are treated very severely by our school and we do not want to promote anyone or anything that encourages such prejudice. For these reasons, the student body and leadership team have decided to change the names of the houses, so that the house system reflects the local community, and so that each house can create a new collective identity based on shared values. To instill more positive values, and to bring the community together, the house names will be changed to local landmarks.'

The school's houses are currently named for historical, political and cultural figures but according to the Mail, the houses named after Florence Nightingale and Nelson Mandela will not be changed, and the new names will be decided through a student vote.

A book called Debunking the Myths of Colonisation: The Arabs and Europe, contains a quote from Churchill in his testimony to the Palestine Royal Commission where is reported to have said, "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

Rowling has been criticized for tweets she posted regarding transgender people when she shared an article titled "Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19- world for people who menstruate." The Harry Potter author criticized the use of the phrase "people who menstruate," and suggested the author of the piece should have used the term "women."