What will students be learning in their lessons during Black History Month?
| Subject | Year 7 Focus | Year 8 Focus | Year 9 Focus | Year 10 Focus | Year 11 Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Black heroes in popular culture. | West African and Caribbean Folk Tales | ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi- dystopia inspired by West African mythology | Influential Black Writers and their stories Reporting on the Black Lives Matter movement | Influential Black Writers and their stories Reporting on the Black Lives Matter movement |
| Maths | Black musicians’ sales calculations and comparisons. | Comparison of pre-colonial African empires by area, and comparison of African continent by area with other continents of the world. | Black musicians’ sales calculations and comparisons. | Comparison of pre-colonial African empires by area, and comparison of African continent by area with other continents of the world. | Calculating sporting ratios of famous black boxers. |
| Science | Pupils to complete a research task on a black scientist, inventor or someone who has made a significant contribution to the field of science | Pupils to complete a research task on a black scientist, inventor or someone who has made a significant contribution to the field of science | Pupils to complete a research task on a black scientist, inventor or someone who has made a significant contribution to the field of science | What were Hela cells? | Who was Katherine Johnson? |
| Art | Maori Culture - Colonialism | People of colour in Renaissance + Art Faith Rainggold - African American painter The story of Oluadah Equiano | Basquiat | ||
| Dance | A look at the origins of street dance and how African and Caribbean influence shaped the dance form. | To look at the origins of hip hop and how the influences from popular culture and African culture travelled across the sea and changed the genre of dance. | Underpinning of choreographic principles using African and Caribbean poets as a stimulus for movement. | To look at how the many forms of street Dance formed and shaped the world of Dance during the 1970’s-2000’s; and how this influenced Kenrick H20 Sandy’s choreography of Emancipation of Expressionism. | |
| Drama | “I, Too” by Langston Hughes. (Narration and storytelling) | Othello | Exploration and celebration of Black actors including Hattie McDaniel. | Focus on the work of Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman & Angela Bassett | |
| Music | Sheku Kanneh Mason and diversity in Classical music. | Stevie Wonder's “Master Blaster” (Jammin) as an Ode to Bob Marley. | Unforgetting Julius Eastman (1940-Unforgetting Julius Eastman (1940-1990), the composer America almost forgot. | ||
| DT | A celebration of African culture through design. ‘Furniture’ | A celebration of African culture through design. ‘Shoes’ | A celebration of African culture through design. ‘Afro combs’ | Poetry and politics in the UK ‘Black Lives Matter | |
| Computing | Pioneers in technology and the advancements in the digital age. | Pioneers in technology and the advancements in the digital age. | Pioneers in technology and the advancements in the digital age. | ||
| MFL | Language Acquisition Process focused in Creole. | Black Heritage presence in French French Colonies with majority of black population: cultural approach through French language. Haitian Revolution. | Mestizaje: Cultural approach to Black music in hispanic communities. | . | |
| Geography | Mapping Black Britain. | Mapping the diaspora | Climate Activism and POCs. | Who was Toussaint L'ouverture? | Black business in Britain. |
| History | Black Britons over time: from Roman Britain to the Windrush | African Kingdom - Egypt, Kush, Nubia, Timbuktu | The Black Female Experience: Hair, body image, sexualization and perception. | BLM and its historical context | The Black Power movement |
| R.E | Rastafarian symbols | 21st century black church in the UK | The work of Ben Carson | Malcolm X and his work | Marcus Garvey and his work |
BHM Independent Projects
Click this link to join the BHM Google Classroom
Verse of the Day
Wednesday 21st Oct
Rapid Eye Movement
Pharoahe Monch
Vocally twice as magnifying as ever hearing Chewbacca scream
Through a megaphone with the significance of Dr. King
Philanthropic
Cause I’m trying to see man united without referencing UK soccer teams
My philosophy prophecy
The opposite of Mephistopheles’ eye inside an isosceles
Sent to Earth to warn of environmental atrocities, and nobody can copy me
Stop, it’s not possible but probable that it’s only philosophical mockery, strange
Change copper to gold, switch properties, bang!
Stay on top of the globe, flip monopolies, aim
Take stock in the soul, spit properly
Tuesday 20th Oct
Ready or Not
Lauryn Hill
If I could change the times, make rhymes, raise the babies
Give all the pigs rabies
Send biting rappers to Hades
Clothe young ladies
Chase the rainbow, find the pot
Free the third time offender once he learns to make Selaat
Lose the fame, take the money
Play boys–just like they done me
Find a man with a plan
Slap a chicken if she act funny
Break the bank, own tank
Stop rappers from acting stank
Take over, give out free Rovers
Teach a man to find Jehovah
Own the stores, own the tours
Watch the record pimps and whores
Make love, stop the wars
Cop the land, like the Moors
Make the last be the first
Make the god respect the earth
Change the murder rate to the birth!
Monday 19th Oct
Dear Momma
Tupac
When I was young, me and my mama had beef
Seventeen years old, kicked out on the streets
Though back at the time I never thought I’d see her face
Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mama’s place
Suspended from school, and scared to go home, I was a fool
With the big boys breakin’ all the rules
I shed tears with my baby sister, over the years
We was poorer than the other little kids
And even though we had different daddies, the same drama
When things went wrong we’d blame Mama
I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell
Huggin’ on my mama from a jail cell
And who’d think in elementary, hey
I’d see the penitentiary one day?
And runnin’ from the police, that’s right
Mama catch me, put a whoopin’ to my backside
And even as a crack fiend, Mama
You always was a black queen, Mama
I finally understand
For a woman it ain’t easy tryin’ to raise a man
You always was committed
A poor single mother on welfare, tell me how you did it
There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan
Is to show you that I understand: you are appreciated
Friday 15th Oct
Layer Cake
Kano
Check, check Check Check
I’m two albums deep a thousand shows in
Cause I fight for the right til the towel gets thrown in
We hustle down here, knuckles ’round here
Never stays pretty when you’re raised in the city
It’s a place full of hatred where they wanna stick me
Cause I’m making my statements and they think too quickly
I’m a victim to criticism, menace to society
Cause I’m in a position where many do admire me, (huh)
But there’s always an obstacle, just move left but the stress ain’t optional
It’s all bless but nah, you forget, you’ve gotta do better you can’t do your best
Crucial how you move cause you’ll lose your breath
And this music will follow you to death
Do us part, now you’re married to the game
With no footsteps to follow: pave the way
Eh, that’s the layer cake, play your position
It’s too messed let me explain how the biz is
Too real, you feel that you’re in control but you ain’t, you’re stuck in the layer cake
Thursday 14th Oct
Why Is That?
KRS One
We’re not here for glamour or fashion
But here’s the question I’m askin’
Why isn’t young black kids taught black?
They’re only taught how to read, write, and act
It’s like teachin’ a dog to be a cat
You don’t teach white kids to be black
Why is that? Is it because we’re the minority?
Well black kids follow me
Genesis chapter eleven verse ten
Explains the genealogy of Shem
Shem was a black man, in Africa
If you repeat this fact they can’t laugh at ya
Genesis fourteen verse thirteen
Abraham steps on the scene
Being a descendant of Shem which is a fact
Means, Abraham too was black
Abraham born in the city of a black man
Called Nimrod grandson of Ham
Ham had four sons, one was named Canaan
Here, let me do some explaining
Abraham was the father of Isaac
Isaac was the father of Jacob
Jacob had twelve sons, for real
And these, were the children of Israel
According to Genesis chapter ten
Egyptians descended from Ham
Six hundred years later, my brother, read up
Moses was born in Egypt
In this era black Egyptians weren’t right
They enslaved black Israelites
Moses had to be of the black race
Because he spent forty years in Pharaoh’s place
He passed as the Pharaoh’s grandson
So he had to look just like him
Yes my brothers and sisters take this here song
Yo, correct the wrong
The information we get today is just wack
But ask yourself, why is that?
Wednesday 13th Oct
Good Morning
Killer Mike
Just as soon as the sun rise, the night dies
You was building pyramids and African empires
Where pale-skin savages with straight hair and light eyes
Was still eatin’ raw meat and barely could light fires
Before we ever sold drugs, we civilized Spain
You are not the first Black man in the Mediterrane’
Damn, you lying to impress, you is just insane
I look at you with the disdain of an old feaces stain
How you product of a God and you worship a man?
I was God in the flesh before I drove a Mulsanne
Five keys of gold sittin’ on my neck in the flame
Surrounded by Black women, West African king
And I’m gonna go to Ghana to reclaim my name
While these chump rappers rap about the stuff they cop
Man, I cop my block, and this wave don’t stop
I’m the official, unofficial mayor of my city
Tuesday 13th Oct
I Can
Nas
Be, be-fore we came to this country
We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys
There was empires in Africa called Kush
Timbuktu, where every race came to get books
To learn from black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans
Asian Arabs and gave them gold, when
Gold was converted to money it all changed
Money then became empowerment for Europeans
The Persian military invaded
They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred
Africa was almost robbed naked
Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships
Egypt was the place that Alexander the Great went
He was so shocked at the mountains with black faces
Shot up they nose to impose what basically
Still goes on today, you see?
If the truth is told, the youth can grow
They learn to survive until they gain control
Monday 12th Oct
Mean & Vicious
Lupe Fiasco
Truthfully, I have trouble with second verses
Cause the first one be so intimidatin’, it be bullyin’
Pickin on it, instigatin’, pointin’ out all the second one’s limitations
Like, “You ain’t nothin but a imitation, like, bits o’ bacon
Then he gets the chorus and the beat to get together
Then they all gang up on him and get to hatin’
But then around the eighth bar he tires of their conspirin’
Commiseratin, then he finds his inspiration
To spar, he takes a few seconds of judo lessons
Gets back on beat, then punches the guitar
They stand in awe, like, “When did you write that?”
They ain’t even right, black, first verse already happened
So he don’t have a chance to fight back, I like that
Abagnale Junior, check me, you gon’ respect me
Aight, ‘Trakk, listen to him, feelin’ himself
Swagger up and a few ad-libs to back it up (woo!)
Let’s back it up, I think you’ve had enough
Give me my mic back, you ain’t even write that
Oh, it’s like that?, ‘Trakk, stop pumpin’
‘Til this brotha stop frontin’, yeah, yeah, now right back
Friday 9th Oct
You Must Learn
KRS One
I believe that if you’re teaching history
Filled with straight up facts no mystery
Teach the student what needs to be taught
Cause Black and White kids both take shorts
When one doesn’t know about the other ones’ culture
Ignorance swoops down like a vulture
Cause you don’t know that you ain’t just a janitor
No one told you about Benjamin Banneker
A brilliant Black man that invented the almanac
Can’t you see where KRS is coming at
With Eli Whitney, Haile Selassie
Granville Woods made the walkie-talkie
Lewis Latimer improved on Edison
Charles Drew did a lot for medicine
Garrett Morgan made the traffic lights
Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night
Madam C.J. Walker made the straightening comb;
But you won’t know this if you weren’t shown
The point I’m gettin’ at it it might be harsh
Cause we’re just walkin’ around brainwashed
So what I’m sayin’ is not to diss a man
We need the 89 school system
One that caters to a Black return because
You must learn
Thursday 8th Oct
Dope Man
Jay-Z
Right hand on the Bible, left hand in the air
Before I spoke one word, made sure my throat was clear
A-hem, I’m a prisoner of circumstance
Frail brotha, I couldn’t much work with my hands
But my mind was strong, I grew where you hold your blacks up
Trap us, expect us not to pick gats up
Where you drop your cracks off by the Mack trucks
Destroy our dreams of lawyers and actors
Keep us spiralin’, goin’ backwards
At age nine, saw my first hate crime
Blindfolded, expected to walk a straight line
Mind molded, taught to love you and hate mine
Climbed over it, at a early age, Jay shined
Forget the system at Lady Justice I blaze nine
Your Honor, I no longer kill my people, I raise mine
The soul of Mumia in this modern day time
Wednesday 7th Oct
Oh No!
Pharoahe Monch
I’m intellectual, pass more essays
Than motorcade police parades through East L.A
More beef then deli’s, thus what I vent is just
What you lust to vent, it’s irrele’
Huh, hallelujah, Pharoahe Monch’ll do ya
Maintain the same frame of mind – screw ya!
Get the picture, sit ya, seat ya, greet ya with scriptures
I’m equipped to rip ya, reach ya
Pharoahe and Mos is verbal osmosis
Coast to coast, we boast to be the most explosive here
Ferocious, the lyrical prognosis
The dosage is leaving you mentally unfocused here
MC’s just come on ’round!
You’re the next contestants on “Catch-A-Beat-Down”
Don’t be hesitant, sound cracks the sediment
It’s evident we medicine for your whole town
Sky’s the limit, game’s infinite when I’m in it
All windows is tinted
How you seeing me when I’m in it?
Rap, we got it on lock man, stop that
Put that mic back down, boy, drop that
Pharoahe’s flows blows shows like afros
We hate y’all though, that’s why Nate Dogg goes
Tuesday 6th Oct
Re:Definition
Talib Kweli
Redefinition, turning your play into a tragedy
Exhibit level degree on the mic, passionately
Playas is sweet so I bet if I bit I’d get a cavity
Living to get high, you ain’t flyer than gravity
We die hard like the battery thrown in the back of me by the mad MC
Who think imitation is the highest form of flattery, actually
Don’t be mad at me, I had to be the one to break it to you
You get kicked into obscurity like judo—no, Menudo
Cause you pseudo, trying to compete with reality like Xerox
Towards destruction you spiraling like helix, wipe them teardrops
Chasing stars in your eyes, playing games with your lives
Now the wives is widows soaking up pillows, weeping like willows
Still more blacks is dying, cause they live and they trying
“How to Make a Slave” by Willie Lynch is still applying
Monday 5th Oct
Forever
Inspectah Deck,
I bomb atomically
Socrates’ philosophies and hypotheses
Can’t define how I be droppin’ these mockeries
Lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery
Possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
Tremendous, ultra-violet shine blind forensics
I inspect you, through the future see millennium
Killer Bees sold fifty gold sixty platinum
Shacklin’ the masses with drastic rap tactics
Graphic displays melt the steel like blacksmiths
Black Wu jackets queen B’s ease the guns in
Rumble with patrolmen, tear gas laced the function
Heads by the score take flight incite a war
Chicks hit the floor, die hard fans demand more
Behold the bold soldier, control the globe slowly
Proceeds to blow swingin’ swords like Shinobi
Stomp grounds and pound footprints in solid rock
Wu got it locked, performing live on your hottest block
Friday 2nd Oct
Exhibit C
Jay Electronica
“When I was sleepin’ on the train
Sleepin’ on Meserole Ave out in the rain
Without even a single slice of pizza to my name
Too proud to beg for change, mastering the pain
When New York rappers was calling southern rappers lame
But then jacking our slang (Oh!)
I used to get dizzy spells, hear a little ring
The voice of an angel telling me my name
Telling me that one day I’ma be a great mane
Transforming with the Megatron Don, spittin’ out flames (Oh!)
Eating wack rappers alive, spittin’ out chains (Woo!)
I ain’t believe it then; playa, I was homeless (Uh huh)
Fightin’, shootin’ dice, smokin’ weed on the corners
Trying to find the meaning of life in a Corona
‘Til the Five Percenters rolled up on a playa and informed him:
“You either build or destroy, where you come from?”
“The Magnolia projects in the 3rd Ward slum”
“Hmm, it’s quite amazing that you rhyme how you do
And that you shine like you grew up in a shrine in Peru” (Ooh!)
Question Fourteen, Muslim Lesson Two:
Dip-dive-uh, civilize a eighty-five-uh
I make the devil hit his knees and say the “Our Father”
Abracadabra, you rocking with the true and living
Shout out to Lights Out, Joseph I, Chewy Bivens
Shout out to Baltimore, Baton Rouge, my crew in Richmond
While y’all debated who the truth was like Jews and Christians”
Thursday 1st Oct
Thieves in the Night
Mos Def (Yasiin Bey),
“America, land of opportunity
Mirages and camouflages, more than usually
Speaking loudly, saying nothing, you confusing me, you losing me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted in your usury
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the looking glass
Walking the street, wondering who they be looking past
Looking gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht, but they won’t call it a slave ship
Strangeness, you don’t control this, you barely hold this
Screaming “brand new”, when they just sanitized the old ish
Suppose it’s, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been running across stars through all the time with
I find it’s distressing, there’s never no in-between
We either ni**as or Kings, we either b***es or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other guys secondary
That type of illing that be filling up the cemetery
This life is temporary, but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you…”
