Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The Equality Act provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equity and fostering good relationships between people.
It also ensures that we continue to tackle issues of disadvantage and underachievement of different groups. At SMA we strive to support and promote diversity, equity and inclusion in everything we do.
The following are protected characteristics outlined in the 2010 Equality Act:
- age
- disability
- sex
- race
- sexual orientation
- religion or belief
What is:
Diversity
Diversity is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations.
Equity
Equity is recognising that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.
Inclusion
Inclusion is ensuring everybody is involved and able to take part within our school community, enabling them to achieve their full potential.
In June 2020, an ‘Equality and Diversity Working Group’, later renamed the ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group’, was established to support this important work. Over the years, it has grown significantly in scope and scale and now works with everyone at SMA to celebrate and support all things DEI.
Young Diversity Ambassadors
In 2023, the Young Diversity Ambassadors first formed to give pupils at SMA the much-desired opportunity to play a bigger role in promoting and supporting DEI events. The YDA’s have completed the Lewisham Diversity and Inclusion team’s racial literacy course. The Young Diversity Ambassadors also pitch and help organise their own events for DEI according to their own interests and engagement with local and global issues.
Culture Day & Big Hair Day
Culture Day is an annual celebration of different cultures across the whole academy. Every class participates by dressing in culturally applicable attire, learning about a creating a display about a specific culture, and then sharing everything they have learnt with the rest of school. Music, dance, a fashion catwalk and food are some of the areas of focus explored in the past. All of this takes place over a whole day in Primary and an afternoon in secondary, alongside Big Hair Day, a celebration of black hair without restriction!
Parents Guide to Black Lives Matter
ABC Forum
The attainment gap nationally for Black Caribbean pupils is wider than that of pupils from other ethic backgrounds. We have high aspirations and expectations for our pupils at St Matthew Academy, and we therefore aim to close the gap. The ABC Forum was created as a way for us to partner with the parents and carers of pupils with Black Caribbean heritage.
Select evenings in the year are dedicated to gathering and discussing how to ensure our Black Caribbean pupils are able to achieve their full educational potential. We discuss with parents, community leaders and staff to examine what adjustments can be made to give them the best chance to thrive throughout their time with us, in higher education and beyond.
Black History Month
Black History Month is explored across St Matthew Academy through, form time activities, assemblies, bespoke lessons, the school lunchtime menu and Culture Day. Pupils engage with contemporary and older history; celebrating the great achievements and iconic figures of black culture, despite the strife and persecution communities have had to overcome. It is also a reminder to pupils and staff alike that great movements are often forgotten, which is why we celebrate it at SMA!
Deaf Awareness Week
Deaf Awareness Week at SMA is celebrated long before the week itself. A song is chosen and each line is split up across every form in the whole school and practised in British Sign Language. Classes then record their line and everything is edited together and put online to illustrate SMA’s support of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
2024
Rainbow Club
As an inclusive, caring community, we endeavour to support the LGBT+ community at St Matthew Academy. In order to achieve this, several members of staff at St Matthew Academy wear a rainbow badge, which both shows support and tells pupils that they can speak to the member of staff about all things LGBT+ without judgement. The badge wearing also enables pupils who would like to know more to be confident in asking questions. Our intention is to create a safe space where pupils feel confident and comfortable in themselves to have important open and honest conversations.
Religious Observations
As a Catholic school, St Matthew Academy follows the liturgical calendar of the Church. This consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints like St Matthew, St Mother Teresa and St Oscar Romero are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read. In addition, we give pupils contemplative and meditative time through our guided meditation sessions. They are also encouraged to attend holy mass. During the seasons of Lent and Advent, pupils have assemblies and liturgies about the significance of sacrifice, service and discipleship and about the joy of the nativity and the resurrection.
As an inclusive community, St Matthew Academy also observes and celebrates other religious traditions and holidays, including but not limited to, the Lunar New Year and Ramadan.
During Ramadan, we hold a Ramadan club during lunchtime where pupils and staff can collectively pray together. A pupil leads the prayer and afterwards we provide a haven that is peaceful, away from food and drink. We use these times to discuss our faith and traditions. At the end of Ramadan, we then hold an Eid lunch party for all Muslim pupils.
Resources to Support Parents and Pupils
Please visit the appropriate tab to explore a range of resources which may be of support to you and your child/children.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Black Minds Matter – free therapy/support groups and mentoring
BLAM charity – online forum to discuss events
Education
Here are some examples of organisations that are working to build an educational system that is diverse, empowering, honest and free from racial injustice.
The Black Curriculum - a social enterprise founded in 2019 by young people to address the lack of Black British history in the UK Curriculum. They believe that by delivering arts-focused Black history programmes, providing teacher training, and campaigning through mobilising young people, they can facilitate social change. They have email templates you can send to Gavin Williamson, currently the government’s Education Minister.
The Anti-Racist Educator – a Scotland-based collective of educational stakeholders working to build an education system that is free from racial injustice. They have a podcast and teaching resources that can be used in the classroom.
Anti-racist petitions
Teach British children about the realities of British Imperialism and Colonialism - a petition to teach Britain’s colonial history in schools, from the trauma caused by British Imperialism, to how members of the African Diaspora contributed to the British nation-state.
Battle racism by updating GCSE reading lists - a petition to get The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla and Why I’m No longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge on the GCSE reading list.
Make white privilege and systemic racism a compulsory part of the British education course - a petition to make educating children about how they can be actively involved in standing up against racism a compulsory part of the curriculum.
Anti-racist podcasts - exploring racism around the world
Miss Buchanan's Period Of Adjustment - this episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast talks about the importance of hiring black teachers where black children are taught and how schools can support the achievements of black students.
About Race - a one-off series from Reni Eddo-Lodge, the author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race. She explores issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance.
BBC World Service’s Witness Black History - interviews with people who were there at key moments in black and civil rights history.
Books
Books for pupils in the primary phase
Grace Byers: I am enough (Age 3-8) - A child-friendly simple picture book that reminds us to love ourselves for who we are, to be kind and to respect others
Innosanto Nagara: A is for Activist (1+) - An ABC book packed with definitions and eye-catching pictures that help children engage in and understand activism
Ann Hazzard: Something Happened In Our Town (age 4-8) The story of a white family and a black family as they explore a police shooting of a Black man in their town. The book aims to help children understand and identify racial injustice and help answer questions on the nature of traumatic events.
Matthew Cherry: Hair Love - A short book and film that narrates an African-American father’s relationship with his daughter and styling her hair. The book encourages love and mainstream exposure to people of colour’s hair.
Cobzi A. Cobrera: My Hair is a Garden - Mackenzie is upset about mean comments about her hair. We follow her story as she learns to love her hair with the help of her neighbour Miss Tillie. Using her garden as a metaphor, Mackenzie learns not to fear her hair but to see it as beautiful.
Vashti Harrison: Little Leaders: Bold Women In Black History (Age 7-10) - An illustrated history book of the stories of amazing Black women in history and their achievements
Andrea Davis Pinkey: Let it Shine (ages 5-9) - An illustrated story of Black women doing amazing acts in history, speaking out against racism and oppression.
Fran Manushkin: Happy in our Skin (Age 2+) - A book to teach kids about diversity. The illustrations feature children with different skin colours, glasses, freckles, unibrows, wheelchairs, and birthmarks to help encourage the beauty of diversity.
Ilyasah Shabazz: Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up To Be Malcolm X (Age 5-10) - The childhood story of one of the most influential Black American men, Malcolm X
Ibtihaj Muhammad: The Proudest Blue (Age 4-7) - A beautiful story of being proud of your identity. In the face of hurtful words, Faizah finds the way to be proud of her bright blue hijab.
Jacqueline Woodson: The Day You Begin (Age 4-7) - The story of finding the courage and bravery to be different and connect with people when you feel alone or when “no one is quite like you"
Books for pupils in the secondary phase
Malorie Blackman: Noughts and Crosses series (age 11-16) - Takes social norms and flips them on their head and confronts the legacy of slavery in an engaging and comprehensible manner for teenagers.
Maya Angelou: I know why the caged birds sing (14+) - The first of seven autobiographies of the writer Maya Angelou, describing how her love of literature and personal strength helped her face racism throughout childhood and early adolescence
Angie Thomas: The Hate You Give (14+) - Inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement this story follows Starr Carter and we follow her journey as she tries to speak up for the tragic death of her childhood friend, Khalil.
Lisa Heathfield: I am not a number (14+) -Set in a dystopian future, we follow the story of the rise of ultra-conservatism through the protagonist Ruby.
Books for Adults
The Lonely Londoners: Sam Selvon - The story of black immigrants coming to Britain after WW2, explains how Britain in need treated immigrants with racism and prejudice
Nikesh Shukla: The Good Immigrant - A collection of short personal experiences of the experience of 21 influential British Asian and minority ethnic voices in Britain today. They paint a picture of what it is like to be ‘other’ in Britain today. Poignant, challenging, funny, interesting, and inspiring, this is a must to see Britain outside of a white lens.
Reni Eddo-Lodge: Why I’m no longer talking to White people about race - A sharp wake up call to institutionalised racism and outlines what it means to be a person of colour in Britain in 2020.
Afua Hirsch: Brit(ish) - An exploration into what it really means to be Black and not accepted in British society and how the impact of the past on the present.
David Olusoga: Black and British: A Forgotten History - A historical exploration of the long relationship between Britain and the people of Africa dating to Roman times.
Bernadine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other - A novel that follows 12 women over several decades and a sweeping history of the black British experience
Ijeoma Oluo: So You Want to Talk About Race - An exploration of race in America, aspects of white supremacy--from police brutality to the mass incarceration of African Americans
Charities and Think Tanks
If you are able, here are some charities you could donate to. Your donations will help these charities continue their work against racism.
Runnymede Trust - the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank, challenging race inequality in Britain through research, network building, leading debates and policy engagement. Donating to Runnymede will help them continue to conduct research and engage with policy makers to make long-lasting change.
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust - set up in the wake of Stephen Lawrence’s murder in a racist attack in 1993. The charity works with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 13-30 to inspire and enable them to succeed in the career of their choice, in the hope that the UK will become a place where everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve.
Show Racism the Red Card - the UK's leading anti-racism educational charity, providing workshops, training sessions, multimedia packages and a whole host of other resources to tackle racism throughout society.
