Let's Start Somewhere

So I’m officially a trained primary school teacher! I finished in July and had the summer to reflect and plan. I’m excited to say I have found a job and look forward to teaching a year 5 class.   I feel like I have renewed hope and have been able to see some real change within the schools I have worked in. Obviously, there is still more work to be done but as I was going through my reading corner it was uplifting to see a variety of faces, cultures and voices. I still couldn’t resist creating my own mini library of books with faces and authors of colour, my own little collection of diverse voices and stories from around the globe. I want to ensure I continue championing a variety of voices, and having a collection of books will support this mission.   I have been busy planning my classroom, how I want things to look and how I can make an accessible and safe space for all my pupils. I have created a calm box that has breathing exercises and other mindfulness activities to help ...

By Ray Munn For many children and teenagers, the most difficult thing they will deal with whilst they are growing up is the death of a loved one. When I was young, I always assumed that, naturally, I would first deal with loss (outside of pets) when my grandparents would pass away. I never thought that at 14, I would deal with one of the most emotionally taxing types of bereavement there is: bereavement caused by suicide.   At 21 years old and seven years later, I’m still coming to terms with the choice my best friend made that day. Bereavement through suicide is a special kind of grief: the questions that remain unanswered scream and demand to be asked, some of the most difficult, complicated, and painful questions someone can ever ask. What happened to make them feel this way? Why didn’t they talk to me? How did they come to this conclusion? How long did they feel like this? When did they decide that this was the solution? This list goes on forever. For many of us, the idea of ta...

  Them, me, you, us. By Moyin Ekundayo This article/ rant is very late, and in reading, you find it very clear when bits of it are written. I was trying to navigate certain subjects regarding representation in politics and policies. I hope I made myself clear and you do not get bored.  Alright, I would like to start by saying I am usually a man of my word; this is because, following recent political upheaval, I adamantly proclaimed that "I will no longer be talking about politics, only things that are funny and matter", but here I am again talking about politics. -   This statement was made in a bar in a slightly drunken state.  Many of you who know me know how sincere this following section is; I would like to congratulate Rishi Sunak on being the current Prime Minster and the first Prime Minister of Colour in this country. It is an achievement that should be celebrated as a landmark achievement. Now yes, congratulation is late, but in my defence, I did say I was no...

By Lucy Ward Moving to West Sussex was something of a shock since I had forgotten what life was like outside of the city after living and working in London for more than ten years. Not only because of the change in environment but also because of the lack of diversity. The children went from a very mixed cultural and ethnic school and nursery to predominantly white institutions.  It was very apparent from very early on that this new area and some of its residents were a world apart from our lives in London and I began to understand why many black Londoners are reluctant to relocate to areas where there is not an Afro-Caribbean supermarket nearby. From our Trump-supporting neighbor who shared her disgust of London as I quote, “it is full of blacks” to the child who told my child that she couldn’t join their game because she was “the black kid”. I felt angry that life had forced me to leave Lewisham and that I had brought my children to a place that was so unaccepting of them. I...

By Jamel McFarlane  Where were you when they murdered George Floyd?     By the time this article is released, it will probably be around 3 years since he was murdered. Even thinking about this - brings back bad memories.    I remember scrolling through Twitter and seeing the video. The first time I watched the murder I was mortified. How could a man be treated like that? No matter what he had done, no human being should ever be treated like this.     After everything went down and the world reacted to the video, more and more people started advocating for the rights of black people. People started marching and rioting about it.     Moyin was SU President at the time, and I was Vice President-Elect. We discus sed the riots. Three years ago, my opinion was that there should not be riots as it could make black people look bad. I think what happened was frustrations had been building for so long and people had had enough. George Floyd w...

By Jamel  McFarlane  Do you have a white parent and a black parent?  How do you class yourself as black when your skin tone is brown?  Your family heritage is from Jamaica so you must love Bob Marley and smoke weed, right? What’s your favourite rapper? - You like black music, Right?  And probably the most famous one that most people of colour have unfortunately faced.  Where are you from? I mean where are you really from?  Here is a few statements/questions that I used/still to face as far back as I can remember.  Being a young black man growing up in a predominate white town was a challenge. I moved from London to Ashford around the age of 6 and while I was in primary school I don’t remember having any close black friends. Although were people of colour (POC) in my class.  Obviously, I had the incident in year 5 (see one of my articles). https://letstartsomewhere.blogspot.com/2022/08/at-what-point-do-you-tell-your.html  ...