Equalities week
This week has been equalities week across Springbank, with lessons being dedicated to the theme ‘All different, all equal’. The children have loved having opportunities to learn about race equality, gender equality and disabilities and mental health. Each day we have focused on a different aspect of equality and the children have completed a variety of activities to help them understand this concept.
Race Equality
On Monday, the children learnt all about race equality. We started the day by learning about Sarah Forbes Bonetta, an African princess who was given to Queen Victoria as a gift "from one royal family to another". We learnt about the school that Queen Victoria sent her to and the wedding she went on to have. This children were all very interested to hear about how different things are now compared to then. We went on to look at what stereotypes are and what it really means to be British, drawing characters based on four different descriptions of British people.
Gender Equality
On Tuesday, we looked at gender inequality, discussing the 'traditional' roles of men and women and how these can vary. We started the day with an experiment, asking the girls to stay inside and clean the classroom whilst the boys went to play football. The children were horrified and couldn't believe how unfair this rule would be! We then moved on to looking at jobs, and which jobs the children believed were for men and which were for women. After a brilliant discussion we came to the conclusion that all jobs could be for either gender, you just needed to enjoy it. The children then designed a fairy tale character that was different to the norm including adventure loving princesses saving princes from the castle!
In the afternoon we completed our "Different families, same love" lessons, looking at how our own families are made up and how families can be made up in many different ways.
SEN and Disability
On Wednesday, our theme was SEN (special educational need) and disability. The children learnt what both SEN and disability were and completed activities which were designed to teach the children that we can't always see SEN or disabilities and that is important to be kind to everybody. We then went on to complete a Deaf Awareness lesson where we learnt to sign our own names and sign along to a Greatest Showman soundtrack!
Refugees
Finally, we looked at the plight of refugees. The children learnt what a refugee is and why people might have to leave their homes. We discussed what it would feel like to have to leave your home, country and family and talked about how we could welcome refugees into our communities
The children have really enjoyed spending the week looking at different aspects of life and learning about what it truly means to be equal. The children also thought hard about equality versus fairness and how sometimes true equality isn't about treating people the same, it's actually about treating people fairly and helping them to experience the same opportunities as others.
