At Lady Nafisa school every October we run a series of activities to celebrate Black History Month UK. Although we do not confine the study of black history to just October, we use this month as an opportunity to focus on it intensely.
This year we started the month with an inspirational assembly from Ustadha Fouzia on some key figures and events relating to black history. Students learnt about racial gaslighting, the power salute, the Windrush crisis and the ‘Rhodes must fall’ protest. Next, Year 11s presented a series of short videos to the school on key events including Selma bridge, Harriot Tubman freeing slaves and recent booing of black players in the England football team.
We also launched a competition for students to write a spoken word entitled “Proud to be…” which is this year’s theme for Black History month. We received many interesting entries and the winner was Ruweyda (Yr 11).
Our year 10 students also led an informative and thought-provoking assembly on “Black Lives Matter” where they compared life in the past to life n the present day as a black person experiencing prejudice.
In tutorial we talked about Muhammed Ali (this tied in with Dyslexia awareness week) and his life.
We rounded up the month with a film screening of “Harriet” for years 10 and 11, “Hidden Figures” for year 9 and “The Help” for years 7 and 8. The movies are based on the lives of black women and struggles they encountered. We hope this month will have increased students awareness of our history and got the students thinking and asking important questions about race, justice and how history is told.
Ust Sanam
Deputy Head
