The focus of Black History Month this October was ‘Freedom fighters’. This has enabled children to learn about a range of historical figures both male and female and from different cultures and times in history who have made a stand against injustices. It has been fascinating to explore the freedoms and rights we take for granted, particularly democracy and freedom of speech along with the responsibilities that come with these and to also consider what could happen if they were ever taken away.

Year 1 read the book ‘Frog is a hero’ and talked about what it means to be a hero.

Year 2 discussed rights and responsibilities and wrote about famous freedom female fighters-Rosa Parks and Emmeline Pankhurst

Year 3 discussed articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and learnt about the Civil rights movement in the USA

Year 4 discussed freedom fighters and values which inspired them to bring about a change. They learnt and wrote about Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai.

"As part of our Black History topic on ‘Freedom Fighters’ we looked at the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We looked at 5 of the rights and ordered them according to the importance of them. We had to discuss each right and explain why we ordered them the way we did."

Year 5 have been reading Journey to Jo’burg and discussed apartheid in South Africa. They learnt about Nelson Mandela and other very important historical figures who were involved in the struggle against racial discrimination such as M.L.King, M.Ghandi, or Jesse Owens.They also read and discussed poems by Benjamin Zephaniah with a theme related to racial discrimination and diversity.

Year 6 learnt and wrote about Muhammad Ali and his protest against the Vietnam war.