CITIZENSHIP VISITS

An example of a citizenship day was the Year 13 PSHE drop down day on Wednesday 8th December. Drop down days are when students come off their normal timetables and have a full day on PSHE activities. Students had the opportunity to engage with SELF-DEFENCE classes ran by Absolute Taekwon-do Association, where basic skills were taught to make our students feel safer and become more aware of their surroundings.

In addition to this, students took part in relationships and sex education workshops ran by the School of Sexuality Education who are outstanding in their delivery of such content. The focus of these RSHE workshops was to explain the law and ethics around consent, including personal boundaries and how it’ s our responsibility to seek consent.

Additionally, teachers here at Vesey led some PSHE sessions on gender identity and sexuality and banking and finance. A particularly interesting session was on the importance of budgeting and saving, and routine money management.

The day ended with students engaging with their usual games activities to ensure physical activity is not missed! If you have any questions about the workshops we run or have some input on how we can make our PSHE led days even better, please email a.orlandini@bishopveseys.bham.sch.uk (PSHE Co-ordinator). Your feedback is much appreciated.

MS ORLANDINI

CONVERSATION & REPRESENTATION

The BVGS community is made up of individuals each with varying life experiences. Below you will read of student-led initiatives which aim to embrace this diversity and learn together in order to enrich school and community life.

E Q U A L I T Y O F F I C E R S

What is the role of the Equality Officers?

As Equality Officers, our mission is to champion diversity across all levels of the school; to create the safest environment possible to allow students to excel and express themselves; and to educate pupils about the importance of respecting each other ’ s differences.

How did you assume this role?

It was advertised as position of responsibility on the Sixth Form Officer Team. A letter of application and interview with Ms Steadman, Head of Safeguarding, was required. The process was rigorous and formal.

What do you hope to achieve?

We hope to inspire students to challenge notions within society and to know that their voices are valued and of importance. We want students to be able to reflect on wider world issues and historical events, and as result encourage Veseyans to be more thoughtful and compassionate people. Instilling a sense of community and respect of one another is vital in promoting a safer school environment for all.

When do you meet as Equality Officers and what events have taken place?

We meet regularly on Wednesday mornings for weekly meetings. Currently, we are in the process of redesigning the equality boards and filling them with beautiful informative posters on littleknown minority figures.

We have presented assemblies to all years on Anti-Bullying Week, Trans- Awareness Week and Disability History Month. The students learnt about famous figures with hidden disabilities that had made immeasurable contributions to society such as Harriet Tubman, Lewis Carroll and Frida Kahlo, as well as transgender inspirations such as Marsha P Johnson. We are all members of the Heritage Society run by Blessing, which celebrated Black History Month this October with quizzes and food sales.

Moreover, for the first time ever at Bishop Vesey ’ s, an LGBTQ+ society has been formed, which meets on a weekly basis on Wednesday lunchtimes. We have just had our Christmas Party with festive balloons and mince pies.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas!

The Heritage Society started in October as the Black History Month Committee. We meet weekly during lunch and we now have 24 members. One of our goals was to celebrate October: Black History Month. In our lunchtime meetings we brainstormed how we could go about this and shared our own interests in Black history.

Throughout October we led the assemblies. Taziyah Davis (10G) sang Beyoncé’ s song 'Freedom' live for every year group in school. My role in the assembly was to introduce our thematic focus of

TOBY WALTON, U6

H E R I T A G E S O C I E T Y

the month - The Forgotten Figures of History. Ellis McKenzie (U6II) informed the school of why and how black people have been forgotten in history and misrepresented in mainstream media, but he, like Anuraag Guha (8W) acknowledged the progress being made, such as Steve McQueen ’ s recent TV Mini Series 'Small Axe' , based on the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community. Anuraag also focused on the contributions of black musicians from Tudor Britain like John Blanke all the way to the present day such as Rihanna and Randall Goosby.

Students found the assemblies interesting and entertaining. Our school is making progress and that is emphasised in the many Curriculum developments. For example, in History students now study the Mali Empire in Year 7, the Empire and Benin bronzes in Year 8, and in Year 9 they study the Jamaican history from 1760-1865.

As well as the assemblies, we had a KS3 Black History Month Quiz where gold house came first, with Purple and Blue House running in second and third place, respectively. We also ran an AfroCaribbean snack sale (funded by donations from Jennies Cash and Carry), raising a total of £180 for OSCAR Birmingham, which is a Sickle Cell Anemia and Thalassemia charity. . This is significant as these diseases mostly affect Black and Asian communities. Heritage Committee members also created and led PowerPoint presentations to be shown during form time on various topics such as The Haitian Revolution and The Brixton Uprisings.

Having this committee in school is so vital as education is one of the steps towards a harmonious multicultural society. This group is also a testament to the values we pride ourselves in at Vesey as students are actively making the school environment a welcoming and anti-racist place.

To explain our name and our focus, we started as the Black History Month Committee. We have now rebranded to the Heritage Society. This change means we are going to expand our focus not only to look at Black history, but also at Asian history and LGBTQ+ history, and many more histories that aren ’t 'mainstream' . I think this is so important as as people need to see people, whether it be in literature, media or politics, who bear similarities to them, thus encouraging their own attainment and achievement.

Currently, the team is making plans on how to make Black history 'assemblies' an all year round presence. We are also looking at celebrating South Asian Heritage Month and creating more educational activities and resources that are accessible for all year groups. This society is a passion project of mine, however, I do want it to be sustainable for the future Vesey generations. Therefore, all the Year 13’ s in the group are in the rigorous process of making sure the application process runs smoothly and we get the right student to be the Chairperson of the society.

BLESSING SOWUNMI, U6