Today marks the start of NGHS Black History Month and as this year, more than ever before, has raised awareness of the injustice of racial inequality, we are especially excited by the whole school, cross curricular celebrations we’ll be running. 

It will be a whole school effort, all the way from Nursery to Year 13, with themed activities and events threading through everything that we do throughout the month. Involving the whole NGHS community we aim to continue educating ourselves on race and diversity in a variety of engaging, educational and interesting ways. The aim is to keep the dialogue open, enjoy conversation and healthy debate and share our knowledge so that a culture of empathy and understanding becomes, and remains, an integral part of NGHS life.

Discovered Figures
We have launched an exciting competition open to girls in all year groups in which they will be given the name of a person to research. They will learn all about this person, either individually or in groups, and a presentation on their findings will be submitted after the half-term break. This will be judged by a panel of NGHS staff, GDST colleagues and our Diversity Prefects. The person at the centre of the winning presentation will then have their portrait created by our very own Mr Brown, and it will be displayed in the Atrium, facing outwards for everybody to see. Click below to see a list of our ‘Discovered Figures’.

 

Outreach and Partnerships
As we continue our outreach and partnership activities with local state schools, we’re excited to be taking our Reach Out programme online with the Reach Out Resource Room. COVID-19 restrictions have not prevented us from collaborating with our local community and supporting the young people of Nottinghamshire. With a continued focus on collaboration and inspiring children to learn, we will be providing resources to partner schools, including a subscription to a dedicated e-newsletter with guest bloggers across all partner schools.

This will be an ongoing programme with each month focusing on a particular theme. It launches on the first day of October and will be dedicated to Black History Month. with specialist resources to understand Black history and celebrate Black culture and contribution.

 

Assemblies, Tutor Time and Lessons
Assemblies will focus on the significance of Black figures in creative writing as well as music and Black History and Protest. Teachers have planned to incorporate racially diverse material and content into their specific subject areas, and the GDST Sixth Form Book Club on Wednesday 7 October will be on the topic of ‘diverse narratives’. All of our NGHS Sixth Form are coming off timetable to attend this event and are looking forward to collaborating with the GDST sister schools.

Show Racism the Red Card
On Friday 16 October, the last day of term, we will have a non-uniform day on which girls and staff will be encouraged to wear something red and donate £1 to the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ charity:

https://www.theredcard.org/wear-red-day

We’re really proud and excited to be acknowledging and celebrating Black History Month in school so creatively this year. It’s part of our ongoing commitment to educating our girls and ourselves about the continuing struggle for inclusion and equality in society. Recognising Black figures in history and celebrating Black excellence is just one part  of the work we will continue throughout the year and into the future. Diversity, inclusion and meaningful change will be at the top of our agenda all year round.