Black History Month at AGGS

Category: Computing, Dance, English, Geography, History, Maths, Media Team, MFL, Music, News, Outside of the Classroom, School, Students write

22 Oct 2021

Across school, we have been celebrating Black History Month. Here is just a small snapshot of activities students have participated in:  

Music: Pupils in every year group have been introduced to black musicians and composers every day. You can see our BHM listening calendar on the school website Black History Month – Listening Calendar

Art: Ms Payne has introduced the work of Yinka Shonibare, currently to Year 10 and acquired some most beautiful Dutch Wax fabrics which use traditional African patterns and motifs to create a collaborative art, dance and drama performance. Students in year 9 were introduced to many Black fashion designers and produced sketchbook pages studying and celebrating their work:

Dance: Year 8 pupils have learnt repertoire and created their own versions of Revelations by the black choreographer Alvin Ailey. 

Year 9 dance pupils have created their own Black Lives Matter dances including repertoire by Ashley Banjo from Diversity:

Drama: Pupils are exploring Noughts and Crosses and how it inverts black history and suppression. They are also looking at Malorie Blackman as a writer.

Maths: All year groups have been introduced to Christine Darden and Evelyn Boyd Granville, African American mathematicians who both worked for NASA.  Students have completed mathematical tasks based around their work.  

English: 
Year 7 – Celebrating individual linguistic identity. Looking at idiolect and examples of how we represent ourselves through individual languages choices and using black voices as examples and inspiration.   

Year 8 – Celebrating diverse voices from across Africa and the Pacific. Using problem solving skills to translate English-based languages from Papua New Guinea and Africa. 

Year 9 – Examining rhetoric using speeches by famous black civil right activists over time 

Year 10 – Examining black protests song ‘Strange Fruit’, its relevance in terms of race relations now and its appropriation on TikTok  

Year 11 – Exploring African American Vernacular English and the impact it’s had on internet language 

Geography: Pupils have been learning about international migration in Year 9 and multicultural Manchester in Year 11. 

Computing: Year 9 pupils have researched and produced a profile for a black pioneer in computer science.  

History: In Year 7, pupils have been studying migration with a special focus on the Windrush generation.

MFL:  KS4 pupils have been learning about Joséphine Baker.  Y12 students have translated poetry written by a black slam poet, which focuses on themes of divided France, BLM, diversity and marginalisation. Y13 have been learning about France’s involvement in the slave trade. Language Ambassadors are also producing the MFL Gazette, which highlights BAME personalities. 

Cross-curricular: Pupils in maths, physics and computing have also been studying the life and work of 3 black women working for NASA in the 1950s space race: Kathryn Johnson (maths), Dorothy Vaughan (computing), Mary Jackson (physics).  

Form-time: In form-time, pupils have been researching famous and influential people of colour and created information posters to display in the hall.  We have also listened to assemblies about the importance of Black History Month.

AGGS Media Team has also written an informative article about black historical moments you may not know about – read it here