Black History Month

The Black History Month celebration across the school was a meeting with frenzied engagement. Lower primary enjoyed the savoury delight of bun and cheese – a popular Jamaican snack. Pupils enjoyed listening to poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah and completed work about his life. They investigated other key figures namely: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela. Zephaniah class highlighted their work with a display board outside their class- room. Other classes enjoyed discussions around Mark Rashford, which proved popular in KS3 secondary too!

The Nest Class chose a creative activity where they used the alphabet to focus on the diversity of Black History Month. To this end, they created posters with pictures, symbols and drawings depicting maps, heroes and carnival to name a few. It was interesting to note how the pupils could use geographical themes like map work to extend their knowledge about how and where African Caribbean came from.

During guided reading, Farah class watched the BBC mini-bites about influential writers of Afro-Caribbean decent.  Pupils enjoyed personalising Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech” and constructed a fun class display of dream bubbles.

The Humanities Department initiated Black History month in secondary. It was exciting that despite the Covid restriction, AN class visited a black owned chocolate business in Greenwich.

KS4 amalgamated Black History month topics alongside studying for their AQA Unit Award (The USA 19955-1968 Race Relation). Pupils demonstrated knowledge of the problems facing African Americans during this period, features of The Montgomery Bus Boycott accompanied with work of Martin Luther King and Malcom X. This work extended into discussions about BLM and considering whether things have changed for people of the black diaspora.

KS3 pupils completed work about black authors and writers in English. All classes watched a variety of films, however most pupils said Hidden Figures was their favourite! A display board about black famous scientists is in the Science class and pupils were inquisitive to learn about Garett Morgan – the inventor of traffic lights. In Art, pupils learnt about Olaudah Equiano and designed commemorative statues and holding discussions about the person they commemorated and why. Contrastingly, all pupils enjoyed making Jamaican patties in cooking.

Finally, it was positive to witness pupils connecting themes from Votes for School power point about BLM to the Transport for London Posters displayed in all secondary classrooms.