Houses created colourful and creative displays to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month. Mr Martineau and Ms Hemmens visited each of the houses to see all of the artwork and to choose a winner.
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Celebrating cultural and national similarities and differences, recognising that diversity enriches our community.
Our staff and pupils actively develop, implement and evaluate new learning activities, which are shared with relevant groups across the school network. Successful activities and resources are built into schemes of work across the curriculum for future years to create a happy, fair and positive environment for all.
Whole-school events are planned to celebrate the cultural, ethnic, linguistic and social diversity of our school community. These events not only celebrate the global nature of RHS as a school, but they will be a vehicle for further education on the importance of being knowledgeable and receptive to other cultures, languages and groups.
Diversity Declaration
‘Value yourself, value one another and value your school'.
At RHS we want all of our pupils and staff to feel valued, appreciated, and able to be who they are at school.
- We actively promote a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion in our school.
- We acknowledge our individual and collective responsibility to listen, to learn and to improve our understanding of the differences that we all have.
- We will be kind to each other and always try to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves.
- We will treat each other equally regardless of sex, race, nationality, culture, religion, sexuality, gender identity or disability.
- We will only use positive language when referring to people from other groups and cultures.
- We will prevent the use of harmful or upsetting language while ensuring the meaning of such words and their history is understood.
- We will stand up whenever we see discriminatory behaviour and we will not be afraid to call it out.
- We will work to create an environment that challenges the stigma of raising awareness for issues that upset each other.
- If we are subjected to discriminatory behaviour we will report it to someone that we trust.
- We will not be afraid to seek help.
Pupil-Led Diversity Committee
Our pupil-led Diversity Committee selects six key events each year for the school community to recognise in more detail. This year these are:
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2022
'Actions not words'.
We celebrated Black History Month with a number of activities, many of which were organised by the pupil-led Diversity Committee. October started with a statement from blackhistorymonth.org.uk read out in assembly encouraging everyone to take the opportunity to reflect on the positive contribution Black people have made in the development of Britain and to get involved in the celebrations and educational events.
An art exhibition was installed celebrating Black artists and designers, posters were put along the main school teaching corridors highlighting and celebrating the lives of some of the most important Black Britons who broke race barriers and left an indelible mark on the history of this country. Movie nights were held celebrating Black cinema and storytelling including Hidden Figures which tells the story about African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race. A lecture by Professor David Olusoga, author of Black and British was streamed for pupils and staff to watch. The library curated a collection of books to help educate and inspire including 100 Great Black Britons by Patrick Vernon and Angelina Osborne, Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye and Silence is Not an Option by Stuart Lawrence.
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Throughout the month teachers have also been celebrating Black heroes in the classroom including scientists, musicians, sportspeople and mathematicians to highlight their contributions to culture and development. A theatre trip took place the following month to the New Wolsey Theatre to see Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses, a story about love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world.
We are fortunate to have a diverse community at RHS and as a school we are striving to ensure that we create an environment where all pupils appreciate and respect each other's differences not just during October, but every day.
Stephen Lawrence Ambassador School
We have been working with the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation since 2019 and are an Ambassador School helping to promote the mission of inspiring a fairer and just society.
This involves embedding issues to do with racism and inequality into various schemes of work across subjects. The school has demonstrated that pupils are educated on:
- The life and legacy of Stephen Lawrence
- Challenging racism, prejudice and discrimination while promoting respect, equality and inclusion
- How to reflect on 'Living Your Best Life'
Each year, the 22 April marks the national Stephen Lawrence Day, which celebrates the life and legacy of teenager Stephen Lawrence who was killed in a racist attack.
Learn more about the Stephen Lawrence Foundation here: stephenlawrenceday.org
LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH 2022
A mural inspired by the street artist Keith Haring has been painted in the Art Department as part of LGBTQ+ History Month.
Water vapour droplets have been hung from the ceiling down the geography corridor, creating a rainbow filled with positivity from around the world.
We are celebrating LGBTQ+ History month in Houses and across departments.
Throughout the month additional activities included:
- Forum, the school's LGBTQ+ ally co-curricular group, presented in assembly about LGBTQ+ History
- A debate in the library discussed whether the Winter Olympics should be boycotted because of LGBTQ+ rights
- The main corridor noticeboards were decorated with rainbow pupil pledges about how to be a better ally
The Kite TRUST
'Awareness to Allyship'
In May 2022 the school held a Parents' Conference with one of the sessions being presented by The Kite Trust on the topic of 'Supporting children in exploring their identity'.
The Kite Trust provide support for young LGBTQ+ people seeking to explore their identities, often with regard to their gender or sexuality. They provide one-to-one support for young people and also visit schools around the country to offer help and training to pupils, teachers and parents on the contemporary questions amongst the LGBTQ+ community such as language, identity and gender.
The talk followed on from recent training that RHS staff had from the Kite Trust which was well-received and the school plans to continue to work with them again in the future to help provide resources for staff and parents.
