October is Black History Month in the UK and across the school our children have been engaging with curriculum projects associated with this focus and theme.  An example of this work comes from Year 2 who have been learning about Stephen Wiltshire, a talented British artist who specialises in cityscapes.  Stephen had communication difficulties as a child and by the age of 3 was diagnosed with Autism.  He has the amazing ability to be able to draw a city in all its detail after seeing it for as little as 30 minutes!  We wonder if anyone can guess some of the cities that we drew after being inspired by Stephen’s work?

 

Recently, two of our Year 5 pupils - Alice and Joy - asked to meet with me to discuss our work on diversity, inclusion and belonging.  They wrote the following: ‘As pupils we wanted to discuss some ideas we had about our school. We talked with Mrs Duck about different cultures and disabilities.  We discussed how we can focus on the same well-known figures, who are great and inspirational, but there are so many other people and stories we can learn about too.  It would be interesting to learn about inventors, artists, scientists, writers and people from different parts of the world, including Africa and the Caribbean, so we can see how all kinds of different people have shaped history.  We also discussed the challenges we can meet on our way to achieving difficult goals and how we need to persevere and find new ways.

 

At St Bede, we work hard to promote diversity widely across the school and across the year.  We are always keen to explore how we share the message and show through our actions that everyone is welcome and valued at St. Bede. Following on from our work linked to Black History Month and this discussion with our pupils, we would like to challenge any or all of our pupils to find and bring in a book after half term that represents diversity, inclusion and belonging.  We will use any books (or images of books) brought in to create a whole school display promoting these important themes. Thank you in advance.