This year’s Black History Month celebrations focussed on the theme Reclaiming Narratives. Throughout this month, the children at Vauxhall Primary School took part in exciting workshops, assemblies and extra-curricular events which were engaging as well as informative.

During our first assembly we defined the term Reclaiming Narratives and why it is important to remember the authentic stories told by African-Caribbean people as well as understanding how the message of these stories can be diluted or lost over time. This was followed up by a series of assemblies highlighting black poets from across the world and compared their accurate depiction of their home compared to inauthentic poems, again showing how the true meaning of stories are important.

#BHM24

We were then lucky enough to have rapper and motivational speaker Alim Kamara deliver two workshops to KS1 and KS2. Alim has travelled all around the world delivering motivational talks to Prime Ministers, royalty as well as performing in national stadiums! His workshop explained how there are many misconceptions around Africa that need to be corrected, such as how big it truly is! He then explained how authentic African stories are told and told us some with his drum! He finished by empowering our children in a truly motivational way! We held a quiz in our final assembly and the children showed they absorbed the message behind our assemblies and workshop by getting some fantastic scores!

    

Another way to showcase authentic Black stories is through music. Music tells stories in a pure, personal form and we wanted to expose the children to that by holding a school disco. The theme was Reclaiming Rhythms: Music Beyond Borders. The children went on a journey through the decades and listened to artists from Caribbean, Africa and Britain. This took place during morning assemblies and children were given the opportunity to analyse the songs, discuss the message behind the songs and compare how music from regions has changed and developed over time. Favourites included: Soul II Soul; Kanda Bongo Man; K’naan; Ms Dynamite and Koffee! This culminated with our school disco! It was a wonderful evening where we all listened to these artists together, danced and played games!

Disco

 Black History is not just a monthly celebration at VPS, we want to make it a 365 celebration. So we are committing to holding an event celebrating Black History every month until the end of the year to show our commitment to such an important cause!