Black History Month

Across the school, the children were been busy this October, celebrating Black History Month. This year’s theme is Reclaiming Narratives which invites us all to take part in shaping how stories from the Black community are told. It focuses on shining a spotlight on untold stories and unsung heroes. The children have been celebrating the everyday individuals across a variety of lessons. The month started off with assemblies for the Infant House and Junior House where they were introduced to Mary Walker, who learnt to read at the age of 116, and Garrett Morgan, who invented the first traffic light. In Art, some year groups studied Faith Ringgold, who fought to have her work exhibited in galleries because she was a woman and Black. The children recreated her story quilts linked to their own families.

In Year 1, the children learnt about Patrick Campbell who works as a senior curator for the Natural History Museum. They also explored what it would be like to leave your home country like those who sailed to Britain on the HMT Empire Windrush. A highlight of the month was learning about and tasting different fruit from the Caribbean.

Year 2 have looked at the lives of Frank Bailey, Rosalie Jones and George Arthur (some of the first black firefighters in England) and created some wonderful fact files. In English, Year 2 have looked at the true story of Coming to England by Floella Benjamin, where some interesting facts about Floella’s life and lots of excellent descriptions of Trinidad Text have been written.

As part of their Stone Age and Rocks topics, Year 3 learnt about Dr Lisa White, an American Micropalaeontologist who studies microfossils deep in ocean rocks.

It has been a fantastic Black History Month at Kew College Prep!