A Haringey Council spokesman said schools had become "better" at recording reported incidents of racism.

More than 200 racist incidents were recorded in Haringey’s primary schools in just three years, it has been revealed.

Figures obtained by the Journal show 219 incidents were recorded across the borough’s 62 primary schools between 2008 and 2011, while 148 were recorded in Haringey’s 12 secondary schools in the same period.

A total of 590 racist incidents were recorded between 2006 and 2011 – the five-year period schools across the UK were required to report them to their local councils.

An earlier Freedom of Information request by the BBC revealed 87,915 incidents were recorded in schools across 90 areas in the same five years.

Unacceptable

A council spokesman said: “Haringey is a special part of London because of its diversity. Racism is unacceptable and is proactively addressed through specific anti-racism lessons and assemblies.

“Schools have increasingly become more aware of the nuances of racism and the increase in reported incidents is most likely a result of higher levels of awareness and better recording methods.”

But Haringey NUT secretary Julie Davies thinks the real figures may be higher than these numbers reveal.

She said: “We think schools (and victims) are under-reporting discriminatory incidents. Some schools probably report a lot and others don’t report at all.

“However the main focus should be on tackling discrimination through teaching rather than punishment. Some prejudices are far more acceptable than others unfortunately.

“Secondary schools are getting better at tackling homophobia but there’s a long way to go in some schools.”