St Osmund’s Middle School ensured BAME issues and history are better represented within the CV

St Osmund’s Middle School in Dorchester is taking steps to ensure that BAME people, issues and history are better represented within the curriculum.

The school initiated an audit of their curriculum to look at how they can tweak it to positively represent BAME people.

This initiative has been spearheaded by Zoe Ward, a teacher at the school.

Ms Ward said: "It's an ongoing long-term initiative to ensure that wherever we can we are positively representing the contributions of British BAME people, cultures and achievements.

"By auditing our curriculum and looking at how we can make it more positive, more representative and more aspirational, I feel that we could provide a really holistic education for our children.

A DORSET school has begun to “enrich” its curriculum by including more Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) topics. Image credit Dorset Echo

"We're not looking to remove anything from the current curriculum, we're enriching it, we're amplifying it and we're putting things into context.

"The history curriculum includes the slave trade but the children don't learn in enough depth that the African kingdoms which were targeted by the British slave traders were well established, functioning, civilised societies with their own languages, culture, religions, monarchies and so much more.

“That’s just one example of how we want to teach the children a wider context of history.”

Ms Ward began to pursue change within the school’s curriculum when she was contacted by former students at a school in London where she previously worked.

She said: "What really stuck out to me was how let down the students felt, they used the word 'impoverished' and that really struck home with me and I started to think "how many times did I miss doing something which would have made an impact?"

"The majority of people aren't racist and would never endorse racism but that is a low bar, the point is to ask yourself how can you be anti-racist, what can you do?

"I want to use my privilege and I want to use my platform. I feel that is a fundamental part of being anti-racist, using your privilege and using your platform and doing what you can to make sure these voices are being heard."

Image credit Dorset Echo

Source: Dorset Echo