Black History Month

For the last two years the British School of Malaga has celebrated Black History Month. This month, we have been remembering the achievements of people today and those in the past who have shaped our world.

This year’s theme is ´Saluting our Sisters’- dedicated to honouring the achievements of black women. You can find more information about the theme here: www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk

During the month the students have spent some curriculum time giving due praise and recognition to those who have played such an important role in helping to positively shape our world and we are pleased to be able to share with you some of the work done by our staff and students. The aim of learning about black history is to help students understand and stand up to racism, which still exists in society, and to ensure that every person of every skin colour or background has equal opportunities to succeed.

• Year 1: To celebrate Black History month, Year 1 have learnt about the astronaut Mae Jemison and painted a portrait of her.
• Year 2: Year 2 have been learning about Alma Woodsey Thomas and have taken inspiration from her art work to make their own creations.
• Year 3: Y3 have been learning about the inspirational gymnast, Simone Biles. We went outside to try out some gymnastics of our own!
• Year 4: Year 4 were inspired by Tamara Madden’s artwork entitled “Cycles”. The children in each class worked collaboratively to recreate this piece using oil pastels to achieve the striking colours. Our Year 4 students researched the lives and achievements of important black women in history and the modern day.
  The children used this information to create fact files, making sure to include all of the key features of this text style. Finally, they shared their information with the rest of their classmates who celebrated the fabulous achievements of these women.
• Year 6: In Science this week, Year 6 has been finding out about the incredible work of black scientists throughout history. We have also been inspired by the powerful and inspirational poem written and performed by Amanda Gorman -´Earth Rise´- about climate change.
• Year 7: In Year 7 Ethics, the students discussed book censorship in the US and most notably the recent censorship of Ta-Nehisi Coates book ‘Between the World and Me’ Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award winning writer who wrote Black Panther series and a Captain America series for Marvel Comics.
• Year 10 y 11: The Year 10 English students are studying the play Noughts and Crosses based on the novel of the same name by Malorie Blackman, best-selling author of books for children and young adults.
  The world of the Crosses and the Noughts is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s a modern-day tale of star-crossed lovers, race and violence.
  To explore the themes of race and inequality we divided into groups. Each group created one freeze frame image to represent what ‘Inequality’ looks like and then a second freeze frame image to represent ‘Equality’. Then the groups brought both images together to tell a story.
  Our Year 10 and Year 11 students have been conducting interviews with women of colour to find out what their greatest achievements have been and whether they have had to overcome any social barriers.
  The idea of creating a recording archive of testimonies arose with the aim of learning about key moments in the lives of the women, and for the students to carry out the interviews as primary sources with information that has not been published before and that has not been manipulated or interpreted by an third party, therefore being completely original work. The recorded testimonies have been listened to in secondary school classes, and have given rise to such inspiring reflections as the ones we would like to share with you below. We hope you enjoy reading them.