Great Britain
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School's Black history course changes how pupils see their country and themselves

School pupils say learning about Britain’s multicultural past has changed the way they see their country and themselves.

Yesterday we launched a campaign calling for Black history to be mandatory in the National Curriculum.

Teaching the subject became optional in schools under the Tories in 2014, and few now have it on the syllabus.

One school which does is the Bolder Academy in Isleworth, West London, which began offering a Migrants of Britain unit in its history GSCE last year.

The course now has 69 Year 11 students and 119 Year 10s. Sharon Adebisi, 15, believes every pupil should learn about the contribution of Black men and women to their country.

Bolder Academy, west London, is one school that already teaches black history and has hundreds of students subscribed to the module (

Image:

© 2021 Bowmer + Kirkland)

Sharon, who was born in Nigeria but came to the UK aged four, said: “I thought people of colour had been here for the past 100 years or so, but the lessons begin back in the 1200s.

“I learned that Black people have been in England for a very long time and we’re not taking anyone’s places. Every student should be taught that there’s always been diversity in Britain.”

Duru Arslan, 15, came to the UK with her parents from Turkey when she was 11.

She said: “The issue of immigration was a big thing for me. Because of the way it’s been exploited in politics I thought it was new.

“I found out that I’m not the first generation of people to come here, people have made Britain their home for millennia.

“That has helped me feel less isolated. I think most people who are against immigration just aren’t aware of Britain’s history. I think you can solve a lot of the problems of prejudice by teaching these things to all children.”

Luqman Abdi, 15, said learning about the UK’s Black history helped him to “see the world differently”.

The Year 11 student, who was born in Denmark to Somalian-Ethiopian parents and arrived in the UK aged six, said: “I’d no idea of the people of colour who had helped shape Britain down the years.”

History teacher Janiece Jackson said the school decided to teach Black history because “we think it’s really important that our students see that Black Britons and migrants have made a really important and rich contribution to our history”.

She said: “We are a nation of migrants, so to exclude that history were not providing our students with a real sense of what British history is.”

Read more of our stories on Black history at www.blackhistoryisourhistory.com.

Sign our campaign petition at Black History Is Our History.

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