In November, all of our children audited the book corners in their classrooms. We learnt about what ethnicity means and how important it is to have ethnic representation in our books at school. Then we checked every book to see if there is representation in the main characters and authors; whether books show positive contributions of people of colour in history and modern times; whether there are ethnic stereotypes in our books; whether the books teach us about history from the point of view of people of colour and whether books teach us about colonialism and slavery accurately.
The Rights Respecting Steering Group then analysed the results of everyone's hard work and ordered new books that were needed! There are some fantasic stories and non-fiction books to get stuck into, from authors such as Jen Wang, Lenny Henry and Sharna Jackson and Serena Patel. We've got beautifully illustrated tales, award winning fiction writing, history and geography books, graphic novels. and signed copies!
It's essential that everyone at Kingsway sees themselves represented in our book collection and we're very proud of pupils' hard work and understanding about their own rights, which has lead them to be able to make a change by themselves.