Black History Month in schools

Written by Zaina Ali, Project Manager – Education Works

This year, to celebrate Black History Month (BHM), the education team at ELBA has been working with its fantastic business partners to create educational opportunities for students to gain a broader understanding of Black histories and consider the experience of Black professionals, whilst also listening to allies of the community who delved into the various inclusive initiatives and affinity groups at their respective firms to highlight the importance of allyship.

We partnered up with our two all-girl schools, Sarah Bonnell School and Eden Girls School, to deliver two career carousels on the 10th and 12th of October. 17 volunteers delivered talks to year 7 and year 10 about their career journey, education history and career aspirations. The volunteers also took the chance to shine light on black females who have been the most influential to their journeys in reference to this year’s BHM theme – ‘Saluting our Sisters’. The talks were a great success and the volunteers thoroughly enjoyed themselves:

“Wow what an excellent event of volunteering. Engagement from children was great and interactive. I felt totally prepared for the day because of the super clear instructions and briefing call led by Zaina. It answered every question so the attendance, logistics, timings and structure of the day were really clear. It meant that volunteers simply had to turn up and give their presentations. Special thanks to Zaina for her help and guidance before, during and after the event.”

“The career carousel session was run really well by Zaina, overall a very rewarding & insightful volunteering opportunity.”

In addition to this, we wanted to highlight the activities that our partner schools have been facilitating to share the importance of BHM with their students.

Here is what Eden Girls School have been up to:

The students here took part in a workshop looking at African Art which they tried out for themselves too:

The Year 8s also spent time learning about Rosa Parks and the significance of her protest:

Sarah Bonnell School had a ‘drop-down’ day for the entire school where each year group took part in various activities pertaining to BHM. From theatre and food to textiles and photography, the students immersed themselves in Black culture and the history behind it:

It has been fantastic to see how our schools have been implementing BHM during lessons. A massive thank you to our business partners also and their commitment to honouring such a meaningful campaign. We hope to continue inspiring and shaping the future of the next generation, one dream at a time.

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