A Bermudian schoolboy and his mom have featured in a story by the UK’s national broadcaster about a rise in racist abuse in English schools.

Carla Zuill, a former Bermudian journalist who now lives in Manchester, told the BBC she was called by his school and told her son, Nai’m, had been called a “black midget” by another pupil.

Nai’m, 9, told the BBC: “At first, I thought I heard something different. I wasn’t expecting to hear it. I was shocked and sad at the same time because he was my friend and I didn’t expect any of my friends to call me a name.”

Ms Zuill admitted the news reduced her to tears. She told the BBC: “I was in disbelief. But it did in fact happen, so I was taken aback. Then, three weeks later, I got a call again and his teacher was upset.”

She said she called the school and told them she would not send her son back to the school until they “got a grip” on the problem.

Ms Zuill said: “I did meet with his principal and I have had constant contact with one of his classroom teachers, who are just as shellshocked as I am.”

She said Nai’m experienced racist abuse at least five times in one year alone.

One of the boys who taunted Nai’m has been placed on a local authority register for racism and a second was suspended from school on a temporary basis.

Ms Zuill said: “I couldn’t believe that children would actually talk like that.

“He was only 8 at the time and shouldn’t have had to endure this type of treatment.”

Ms Zuill declined to comment further when contacted.

The BBC reported that there were 496 temporary exclusions for racism from primary schools in the 2017-18 school year, 40 per cent more than in 2006-07.