Homework – Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole

We had some brilliant homework in from the last half term following our learning about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole.

We even had a video sent into us from a journalist telling us all about Mary Seacole’s life. Unfortunately the video is too large to upload to the blog but we’ve taken some screenshots for you to enjoy instead.

Black History Month Part 2

Today we met up with Y5 via Zoom to share what we had been learning about for Black History Month.

We sang them a song called Hands, Feet, Heart which originates from South Africa and we shared lots of information we had learnt about Mary Seacole.

In turn Y5 shared information with us about a man called Mahatma Gandhi. We learnt about his life and the struggles he faced throughout his life.

Thank you for sharing your learning with us Y5. We can’t wait until next time.

Black History Month

Throughout the month of October, we celebrate the lives of significant and influential black people past and present.

Over lockdown, you may have seen images on the news or heard on the radio something about a movement called Black Lives Matter. This was a protest against police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.

In Y2, we then started to think about the differences between people all over the world and we started to make a list of attributes we would like everyone in the world to be like.

We wrote them on different colours of paper and linked them together to show our unity with one another. These included: kind, respect, freedom, equal, fairness, loving, courage, bravery and acceptance. We then hung them in the classroom for us to be able to see.

Next we read a story called We March by Shane W. Evans. This book looks at the remarkable event on August 28th, 1963 where over 250,000 people gathered to march in America to protest for the rights for jobs and freedom for all. People such as Martin Luther King were there and it was here that he gave his speech I have a Dream, advocating racial harmony.

In our next session, we looked at the influential person Desmond Tutu. We learnt about what it was like for him to grow up in South Africa at the time of Apartheid and segregation. We couldn’t imagine what that would be like if that were to happen today.

We took part in a P4C session and asked the question: Is it ok to treat people differently?

Finally we finished off our learning about Black History Month by learning about a very important lady called Mary Seacole. Our history topic this half term has been about Florence Nightingale. We learnt that Mary Seacole was too a nurse who went to help in the Crimean War but was treated differently because of the colour of her skin.

Click here to learn more about Mary Seacole and her life.

Lots of people throughout history and even today are treated different because of the way they look, their religions or their beliefs. This is racism. We have to act now to stamp this out. It is not okay to behave like this in 2020.

African Drumming Workshop

To start our learning about Black History Month, Miss Wright had organised for a special visitor called Paul to come into school to show us how to play an African drum. What a treat we had this week – just look at the fun we had.

We learnt the names of the drums and how to play them. We learnt how to play some African rhythms on the drums and we finished off our session by playing our African rhythms in a three-part round. What an exciting morning we had!

Rosa Parks

In Pearl class, we have been learning about Black History Month. This is a time where we learn, honour, and celebrate the achievements of black men and women throughout history.

In particular, we learnt about a very special lady called Rosa Parks.

We read the story If a Bus Could Talk’ by Faith Ringgold and watched a video to learn more about her life. Click here to watch the video clip.

From reading the book, watching the video and then researching about her using the laptops and iPads, we found out the following information.

• Rosa Parks was born on the 4th February 1913 and she died on 24th October 2005, aged 92.
• She was African-American.
• During the 1950s in America, there was a civil rights movement which meant that people with the same coloured skin were not allowed to mix with people with different coloured skin.
• On 1st December 1955, Rosa was sat on a bus and she was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger.
• She was ordered to pay a fine of $10 but she refused as she believed that the law was wrong.
• She continued to fight for equality and rights for all African-Americans and has become a symbol of equality and freedom to many.
• She wrote an autobiography called Rosa Parks: My Story in 1992.

We spent time in class discussing how upsetting that must have been for Rosa, to have been discriminated against just because the colour of her skin.

In Pearl class, there are a lot of different skin colours and we have children with different ethnicity but we treat everyone the same. It would be unfair to treat someone differently if they didn’t have the right shoes on or if they had different colour of hair.

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and deserves to be treated the same.

Have a look at some of the learning that we have completed in class about Rosa Parks.

How to continue the learning at home:

• Learn about other African-Americans and learn why they are important. E.g. Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela
• Talk to your child about equality and treating everyone with respect, regardless of their skin colour, ethnicity or background.