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October is nationally recognised in the UK as Black History Month, and at KPS we began this celebration of British and international black history and culture with an assembly which explored the significance of this month, and even set in a motion a house competition…
Miss Agravat explained to our students during this assembly what has led October to become a month of recognition and celebration of black culture and why it is so important that we as a school, as well as a wider community, are involved in looking at how the identity of our country has been shaped by black people and black history.
Students were asked to identify lesser known black figures from British history, such as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, as well as sharing ideas and thoughts around why British black history hasn’t been widely covered in our school curriculum. It was clear that our students felt very strongly about this subject and that we needed to make a change to ensure our education system is less biased.
Leading on from these discussions, Miss Agravat introduced our new house competition for the month.
Students have been challenged to research an important figure in black history and produce a poster on this person, with facts covering when this person lived, unusual and interesting facts about them and why they think this historic figure us so important to black history. Their subject can be of any nationality, but it would be even better to focus on historic black figures who were influential to British history.
Some examples given included John Kent, the first black police officer from Cumbria, born in 1805, and Diane Abbott, our first black woman MP, born in London in the 1950s.
Our year 9 Art students have already got a head start on this challenge, as they've been researching the theme of 'identity' within art- a fantastic springboard when looking at the identities of these significant black figures in British history.
As a cosmopolitan school with such cultural and international diversity within its student and staff body, it is important that we explore and celebrate the role people from across the world have had on our British history and identity.
We look forward to sharing some of the fantastic research projects our students put together.