Black History Month 2025: ‘I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved across school’

As diversity prefect, I had the honour of organising and overseeing many events around school over two weeks of October to celebrate Black History Month 2025. The theme for this year was “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, recognising the resilience, strength and progress that define black communities across the globe. Power represents the courage, leadership and agency to create positive change, while Pride represents celebrating identity, culture and excellence.

It was a whole-school celebration, highlighting the diversity of our community and the contributions of black people to music, drama, space and science. 

Week 1:

To kickstart us off, the wonderful Mr Barrett, our school caretaker and in-house astronomer, organised a brilliant exhibition: a product of seven months of research around the Caribbean’s contributions to science and education! Notable figures included Charlene Smith – the first black woman to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering – and Dominic Chang, a Jamaican PhD candidate in physics at Harvard University. 

Our drama department also curated an exhibition of influential black figures in the arts, such as Dorothy Dandridge and Gladys Bentley. 

Our school library and English department played a central role throughout the week too. As well as our brilliant BHM library book displays all-month-round, daily book recommendations were posted on our @nghsbookclub Instagram, spotlighting authors of colour, including many notable female authors (as befitting an all-girls school!) such as Alice Walker, Octavia E. Butler, Malorie Blackman and Dorothy Koomson.  

Students and staff alike have enjoyed these recommendations, with many borrowing books to read over the half-term break!

On Friday, as part of a Black History Month film club set up by Mrs Wharton Howett, our deputy head - pastoral, we watched The Woman King: a 2022 historical action-adventure film about the Agojie, an all-female warrior regiment that protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s.

Week 2:

Our Gaming Club also joined in with the celebrations! I did a presentation on some brilliant video games by black game developers, such as In Stars and Time, Advent Neon and Dot’s House. (More info here!) 

Music has been another core part of our Black History Month celebrations. Students, including myself, performed at our breakfast open-mic event in the Dining Hall, coordinated by Mr Rolfe, head of extra-curricular music. It was a brilliant morning, recognising the many ways in which the Afro-Caribbean community has contributed to music and the arts through the ages. 

At lunchtime, the music didn’t stop! Our Year 10 & 11 bands played live music in the Senior Hall with performances of songs made famous by black artists. Our staff band even got involved, playing their rendition of the classic Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry and Stand By Me by Ben E. King.

Our Junior School marked BHM through activities and a very important assembly. Years 4 and 5 researched songs and music made famous during the American civil rights movement, making a new display and presenting their work to the rest of the school. 

Mrs Fowler, our Junior School head, led an important assembly on the current “Operation Raise the Flag” movement, enabling students to discuss this sensitive topic and try to understand the nuances between patriotism and anti-immigration sentiments. We don’t shy away from difficult topics at this school! 

We wrapped up the celebrations with an awesome BHM fair and non-uniform day. 

Activities included:

• A book display brought over from the library, with books by and about people of colour (and an open invitation to borrow)
• Arts & crafts stations including bracelet-making, inspirational quote posters, and Top Trump card creation featuring historical black figures
• A stall run in collaboration with our school’s branch for the National Council for Young Women, featuring information on pioneering black women as well as cakes, henna, and the ever-popular “Guess the sweets in the jar” competition
• A non-uniform day where everyone made a donation of £1 to wear red in aid of “Show Racism the Red Card”

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved across school. We have a very diverse school community already, but the aim is that these conversations and celebrations don’t end after October, while we continue to build an even more inclusive school environment all-year-round.