Dedication to Diversity

No one will have forgotten the tragic murder of George Floyd that sparked unrest and outrage across the world. Nor that our alumnae quite rightly contacted NHSG in June 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matters campaign. We continue to develop and implement our plans in school, and also those of the wider Undivided programme across the GDST. As well as considering racial inequality, we have been focusing on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in its broadest sense and in September we introduced an EDI Code of Conduct to which all girls and staff are required to adhere.

We were also able to bring some of our work more sharply into focus during Diversity Week in June 2021 as we sought to raise awareness and build understanding of neuro, gender, cultural and racial diversity. There were assemblies, activities, films, and talks as well as our now well established stall in the hall, (or in this case stall outside of the hall because of Covid mitigations), where girls could take part in creating a giant cultural diversity paperchain and to make rainbow flags. to welcome one of our alumnae and former Head Girl, Davina Nylander (Class of 2015), who is studying Medicine at UCL, to give a live online talk to our Senior School pupils. Davina gave an excellent and thoughtprovoking talk to pupils in 2020 and her message resonated strongly once again.

To cement the work we were doing in school during Diversity Week, and to widen awareness, we also released a series of articles on our social media channels. Davina was one of the authors and she was joined by another alumna, Liv Devine, now a successful singer and musician; Lucy Franks Doyle who is Deputy Head Pastoral and the Senior Lead for EDI at NHSG, also authored an article, as did Shruthi Singhvi, who is our current Sixth Form pupil EDI Lead.

A common theme throughout the four articles was of the importance of opening minds, of learning and understanding so that we could accept, support and respect everyone in our community, and in the wider world, for who they are and who they want to be.

Lucy Franks-Doyle wrote about how at NHSG we want everyone to feel included and celebrated within the community explaining, “That is why at NHSG we embed these principles through evolving language and a celebratory programme of activities throughout the school year. Even more importantly, we don’t just implement these things for the girls, we shape them with our pupils.

“We need to learn from them what they need and how they want to identify, rather than projecting our idea of what that should look like onto them.

“By understanding one another better we can create more meaningful dialogue between the whole school community. As well as helping students from all different backgrounds succeed, it encourages acceptance and prepares all students to thrive in a diverse world.”

In Liv Devine’s article, she shared how she came out as gay when she was 17 and of the challenges that this brought both at home and in the music industry. She wrote, “Labels such as queer or lesbian or gay are so important, because they help you find people you can relate to.”

She added, “While finding who you are and becoming part of your community is absolutely vital in the end, if I had to share one piece of advice with my younger self it would be this: go at your own pace. It’s important not to feel pressured by others and to acknowledge that you’re on a journey. If one week you think you’re one thing and another you think you’re something else that’s absolutely fine – you’re just on that journey to discovering who you really are. Be unapologetically yourself. There’s a community out there waiting with open arms.”

Sixth Form pupil Shruthi contributed an excellent article to the series where she focused on the importance of being an ally. She described how she had been racially abused on a bus when she was 12 and reflected on how the impact would have been lessened if only someone had helped her. “You can be an ally even if you don’t have a lived in experience of something. And it’s easier than you think”.

Shruthi went on to write about the many ways that people can show their support for a cause or a community, “...If we all take responsibility and do our little bit we can make a big difference”.

She also wrote about the importance of acknowledging and celebrating our differences as well as how learning more about how diversity provides the opportunity for us to “grow as people”. Alumna Davina Nylander also called on readers to act in her article. “We should never leave it to the victims of oppression to deal with the problem alone. Be an ally. When you’re under fire, standing up on your own and challenging it can be really frightening and make you even more vulnerable.

“Commit yourself to doing the work and the reading. Listen and be aware of the people around you.” Binding the sentiment of all four articles and Diversity Week into one, Davina concluded, “Our unique identities should be something we are proud of celebrating, and we all need to work together to ensure that everybody feels respected and accepted for who they are.”