Page 22 - Herioter 2021

OCTOBER

Pupils mark pupil at Heriot’s in the 1920s who, despite being
a phenomenal sportsman, was never selected
to play rugby for Scotland due to the colour of
his skin. Vineet Lal, a Governor and former pupil,
also shared information about his mother’s life.
Black History Saroj Lal was the first BAME teacher at South
Morningside Primary School in 1970.
Month racism and looked at the achievements of black
We also learned about how sport is addressing
athletes.
At the end of the month, Kuzamium Dangata
Hundreds of Senior School pupils pledged to and Kenzie Murray presented at Senior School
challenge racism and promote equality as part of assembly and shared more information about
Black History Month in October. Black History Month, and the steps we can take
The month was launched with an assembly to educate ourselves about black history and the
featuring Dr Jessica Harris, a culinary historian actions we can take to challenge racism.
and author, who recorded a bespoke message All S1-5 Citizenship classes had a lesson linking
for pupils to help them learn more about black to Black History Month and learnt about the Black
history. She explained how the African diaspora Lives Matter movement. Pupils were invited to
had influenced music, language and gesture, and complete ‘commitments’ which showed our focus
food around the world. Dr Harris then introduced on challenging racism, promoting equality and
a video that charted the progression of the trans- educating ourselves about black history. These
Atlantic slave trade, a period she described as a commitments formed displays around the school.
‘cataclysmic upheaval’. Vineet Lal also gave up his time to speak to
Later in the month, registration time was used 2TJ in their Citizenship lesson to answer their
to share resources to help pupils learn more about questions about his mother’s life and to share his
black history in the UK, and all classes watched own experiences of growing up in Edinburgh.
and discussed the BBC documentary Black and The page opposite takes a deeper look at some
Scottish. of the themes and people introduced to pupils
Carolyn Sharp, the Senior School Librarian, during Black History Month.
shared information from the Heriot’s archive
so we could learn about Edwin Oxley, a former Mrs Gemma Hay

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