Equalities Week 2018

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 recapping our knowledge of famous figures who have influenced the black and race history in our country and others! We completed a timeline of the history of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and thought about the contribution he made to the civil rights movement. For comparison, we looked at the life of Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a desegregated school and discussed the bravery she showed a young age to gain an education. We added this to the timeline and discussed which person we believed made a greater contribution to the civil rights moment. We then looked at stereotypes which promoted some interesting discussion on the stereotypes we might unknowingly have, for example, when asked which,from a series of images of men and women of different ages and race, might be a footballer, all the children chose a man! 

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 assembly, where two children performed the same task and yet received different rewards as one was a boy and one was a girl. The children were not impressed with this! 

We talked about the stereotypes which might affect women and how this affects their day to day lives. We looked at the law, what the 'protected groups' are and why that means that women shouldn't be discriminated against in law and employment. 

We looked at 'Different families, same love' where we followed the story of Linus and his older brother, Jordan. In this story, Linus is ashamed of his older brother because he is gay. We talked about what this means and the stereotypes faced by gay men and women across the world. The children showed some incredible maturity during our discussions and really impressed with how they thought about the issues! 

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 learnt about dyslexia and how this affects people in school and later life!