Black History Week
From a workshop on afro-textured hair to a fantastic final show, Black History Week was a big success.
All of the week's events were created and organised by members of the Sixth Form who were passionate about sharing their culture with the whole school. Led by Rachel Aina, the Black History Week team was well organised and ambitious. The team included Tolu, Adebisi, Lani, Naya, Heather, Tinashe, Georgia, Maya, Morgan, Travis, Tarrik, Steven, Sam, and Peni.
There were a number of events across the week organised by the team: they created performances for the final show and helped with setup, presented assemblies on black culture, delivered workshops, and went into Year 10 Citizenship lessons to talk about the importance of having a country-wide Black History Month.
The assemblies were carefully designed for each Year Group. Lower years were shown an oral history montage compiled of memories of some of the grandparents of students who organised Black History Week. The Sixth Form attended eye-opening assemblies about important issues in the black community, and had a lecture by special guest speaker, Gus Nwanokwu, who wrote Black Shamrocks, detailing his life in the 1950s as a part of the first generation of mixed raced children in London.
The finale of Black History Week was the show which featured performances by students across all year groups. The show was very well attended by an excited audience.
The show was expertly led by Sixth Form hosts Kashope and Adebisi. There were some fantastic speeches made by Year 8 students Ozo and Chineka, and a beautiful speech by Cassius in Year 12.
Brilliant dance numbers were performed by Tinashe, Heather and Chinelo. Maya and Morgan choreographed a great performance for students in the Junior School, which inspired a group of Year 7 students to perform as well.
There was also plenty of singing talent! Serena did a powerful performance of ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay. But that wasn’t the only great performance: Ben, Mia, Kaka, Celine and Abby also sang beautifully.
And we can’t forget the great catwalk of African outfits and the drumming performance!
Thank you to the Black History Week Team for all your work and for sharing your cultures with the School.
Thank you to Olli Ellis for the content and Ari Vignali for the photos.
02 March 2018
