All Different, All Equal

Equalities Week

Week Commencing October 22nd 2018

This week the children have been celebrating their differences and learning about what equality is, the history of equality and how equality is achieved in society today. 

Each day we have learnt about 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 the history of the black civil rights movement in America and in particular at the stories of Dr Martin Luther King and Ruby Bridges. We went on to look at what stereotypes are and what it really means to be British, focusing primarily on the five British values: the rule of law, democracy, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.

Gender equality

On Tuesday, we looked at gender inequality, learning about the history of gender equality through the stories of the Suffragettes and Emmeline Pankhurst. We followed this up by looking at gender stereotypes and talking about how it is ok to be different and to like whatever you like. In the afternoon, we completed a 'Different families, Same love' lesson where we looked at how every family is different but what unites us is that we all love each other. As part of this lesson, we learnt about Jake's story, a little boy who loved to dance and sing but didn't really like football like his friend Harry did. After going through some struggles both Harry and Jake learnt that it is fine to like what you like and that we don't always like same thing. This was a great lesson for the children to learn!

SEN and Disability awareness

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 tolerant, helpful and kind to those of us who may struggle or find things difficult both within school and in the outside world. We finished the day by looking at dyslexia and how this can affect children's abilities to understand and complete work within the school day. The children knew lots about dyslexia and were willing to share lots of stories about how they had sometimes struggled with things at school and how some children had helped them to overcome this.

Refugees

Finally, on Thursday we have looked at the plight of refugees. The children have learnt what a refugee is and why some people seek asylum in other countries. The children learnt about refugees through a variety of interactive activities as well as the story of Manar, a little girl from Syria, whose mother chose to take her away from her war torn country to seek a better life for them elsewhere.

The children have really enjoyed spending the week looking at different aspects of life and learning about what it truly means to be equal.