Diversity in the curriculum

At Brightwell Primary School, we are committed to being actively anti-racist. We recognise that diversity brings strength and opportunity.

The notion that children or members of our community would be judged on anything but their hard work, achievement and character is unacceptable at Brightwell School. Racism is something that we must all strive to defeat, and recent events across the world should serve as a reminder of the urgency of this mission. As teachers and school staff, we all want the very best for our children. We recognise that education is the most important tool in overcoming discrimination - fear and ignorance fuel racism, and we must work hard to ensure our children have the knowledge and skill to question racist views wherever they may encounter them. It is by helping children to understand the world that we will enable them to be the critical and creative thinkers that we so want them to become, and this has been central to the thinking behind our new curriculum.

 

 Support for parents

A parents’ guide to understanding Black Lives Matter

BBC Newsround has some excellent resources:

Special report on Racism in light of recent events

Fact file

Cbeebies presenter Ben Cajee for younger children

Blue Peter response to Black Lives Matter and racism

Activities to do with race, difference and diversity

This is clearly not an exhaustive list, so we would be very happy for you to share useful resources with us that we can use or any books that we can purchase for our school library. Let’s keep this very important conversation going so that we can all learn, understand and stand up for equality together.

 

We recognise that the National Curriculum does not adequately represent black, Asian and minority ethnic history or the achievements of people from these backgrounds. This is why we are working hard to ensure there are plentiful opportunities for our children to explore diversity in all subjects.

We are continuously reviewing our plans for assemblies and topics over the next year to better address histories and issues relevant to us all. We are absolutely committed to doing all we can to stamp out racism. But we know that we do not have all the answers and we recognise that we need to actively listen about how to eradicate racism.