Celebrating Diversity Newsletter
Equality and Diversity Team Newsletter
Term 1 2022
Black History Month at Cotham Gardens
Launched in an assembly on the 4th October, Black History Month has been greeted with enthusiasm and excitement by all of us here at Cotham Gardens. Each year group had a curriculum theme to focus on, and each class chose a person, event or period within that area to study. Over the page, you will see examples of just some of the work that has been going on all around the school.
The event will brought to a culmination with celebratory assemblies in which children from all classes will be able to share some of the work that they have been doing.
Co-operative Parents' News
Thank you to the 90+ parents and carers who completed our short survey about communication and inclusion in June/July. All of your comments were passed to the staff and Senior Leadership Team and we have seen these things happen already:
- Open Mornings for parents to visit classrooms
- face-to-face option for Parent Consultation Evenings
- reorganisation of the Friday newsletter to put events for the week and key dates on the first page
- new termly newsletter about the Equality and Diversity working group
- new termly newsletter from teachers about your children's topics
- up to date information on the website about each year group: https://www.cothamgardens.co.uk/Year-Group-Info/
- increased awareness of a wider range of religious and cultural festivals through the newsletter, ClassDojo and assemblies
- teachers delivering a well-planned and extensive range of learning experiences throughout Black History Month
Please keep your feedback coming. You can contact cgrepscontact@gmail.com or come and find us on our stall at the Winter Fair.
A Message from Anna Johnson, Partnership Governor
As a parent and as Partnership Governor at Cotham Gardens, I have been delighted to see the return of Tuesday Coffee Mornings. They offer a much-needed space for parents and carers to discuss school news and information and to share our concerns, viewpoints, and our lived experiences. They also mean that governors and seniors leaders get the chance to regularly hear the voices of our school community It is due to the advocacy of the Co-op that this wonderful opportunity to celebrate our diversity and learn together continues. Many thanks to the Co-op reps, particularly Sarah Bareau and Sudi Ahmed, to Ms Gray, and to all the attendees who are supporting coffee mornings so enthusiastically. Please do join us if you can!
Governors are committed to supporting staff to create a school community where everyone feels they belong. The Co-op Equalities Working Group will provide a way for us to incorporate the insights and experiences of our wider community in this important area. A warm welcome to the new members of that group.
Your voice really does help us to turn our vision into action. Get in touch with the Co-op forum: cgrepscontact@gmail.com
Equality & Diversity Team News
- We’ve been working hard planning our Equality and Diversity INSET day on 25th November.
- We have used Staff Meeting time to talk about our new guide for dealing with racist incidents.
- This guide has been brought to the school governors who have had a chance to scrutinise it.
Equality Assemblies this term:
- The introduction of our RE theme for this term- the religion of Islam
- A celebration of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah
- The launch of Black History Month- featuring the brilliant Viv Anderson!
- Learning about the Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival of Diwali Sessions held in class)
- Our celebration of all the work we have done on Black History Month.
Black History Month Activity Gallery
In 6S, the children looked at the history of the kingdom of Benin and learnt about the amazing bronze sculptures they made to decorate the walls of the palace. The Oba (king) liked to have fierce and scary depictions to show off his might! Ours may be made of clay and not bronze but they show off our creative might nonetheless.
In 4J, the children read about, and researched on the internet, Katherine Johnson- the inspirational woman who helped make space flight and the moon landings possible.
6L have been weaving! The children learnt about the Kingdom of the Kongo and the Bakongo people’s talent at weaving, and have been trying to recreate their designs using the colours of the Kingdom’s coat of arms.
In year 5’s Black History Month learning, we found out about the Somali musical group Dur Dur Band. We first looked into the society from which they emerged, learning about life in Somalia in the years after the revolution of 1969. We then talked the band itself, investigating their fascinating history from high school band to one of the most successful groups in 1980s Mogadishu . To round off our learning, we designed new album covers for their recently rereleased music.
Beetles were fascinated to find out that Usain Bolt is the fastest human in the entire world and has twice broken the 200 metres world record!
Ladybirds learnt about the footballer and activist Marcus Rashford. This looks like a fun way to learn!
In 2CY, we have been looking at Jamaica through a Geography focus. We have enjoyed learning about the music, food and culture. Here's a water colour we did based on a Caribbean sunset using silhouettes.
In 3JD we have been enjoying the poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah. We chose our favourite of his poems and published it.
This fantastic display outside 4D showcases the learning they have done about the amazing work of George Washington Carver.
A lovely poem from Maddy in 3M, inspired by Valerie Bloom’s ‘We Don’t Believe You.’
Detailed Mae Jemison fact files from 4W.