DIXIT
EDITION 94 2nd October 2020
The weekly newsletter for the Holyport College family
Black Lives Matter For so many reasons, the past nine months have turned the world on its head. Despite all the upheaval in our lives, the thing which I find hardest to believe is that I now live in a world where the President of the United States not only refuses to use his platform to denounce white supremacy but instead actively promotes it. I may not have the same platform as Donald Trump however I believe that, as Head Master of Holyport College, it is both my prerogative and my fundamental duty to define the moral standard of this organisation. With that in mind, and at the outset of Black History Month, I would like to state unequivocally the College’s position and beliefs in relation to racism: •
Racism has no place in civilised society and there can never be an excuse for racism in our school
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The right to freedom of speech is secondary to the rights of our community to live without racism in any form
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Every member of our community has a responsibility to ensure that racism does not go unchallenged or unreported
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Black lives do matter
With this in mind, we are taking a number of steps to promote and celebrate the diversity of our community, to educate our community about racism, to ensure our staff, curriculum and co-curriculum reflects the diversity of our student body and to eliminate racism from our community as a whole. These steps include, but are not limited to: •
Celebrating Black History Month through student led assemblies, links in all curriculum areas and through linking Head Master’s Book Club 2020 to Black History Month
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Providing opportunities to discuss and celebrate our diversity such as through Afro-Carribean Society and our annual Nations Day
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Reviewing curriculum content, particularly at KS3, to ensure all students have the opportunity to understand racism and to learn about the part played by Britain in the transatlantic slave trade, the legacy of colonialism and the history of black people in the UK
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Ensuring that all job advertisements actively encourage applications from candidates from black or ethnic minority backgrounds and that these candidates are prioritised for interview if appropriate
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Develop student leadership and voice to ensure that there is adequate representation from young people from black or ethnic minority backgrounds and, most importantly, ensuring that their concerns are listened to and responded to
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Continue to develop and promote a culture where students are comfortable reporting incidents of racism by including young people in discussions around the best way to handle such incidents
Humanity as a whole can only truly thrive when the wrongs of the past are openly acknowledged and active solutions are found to ensure a more equitable world can exist in the future. This cannot be achieved when those in positions of global power seem set on a path of dissent, discord and division. As a community, Holyport College openly rejects that path. We may not be able to influence the global position but, by educating our young people to reject racism in all its forms and to play their part in finding solutions to the damage that racism has caused to the world, perhaps one day these same young people might play their part in creating a society which is truly equal. Mr McCarey
@holyportcollege
www.youtube.com/holyportal
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