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For our first ever Diversity Week, Bethany School has celebrated the unique characteristics of our community. We have recognised what a boring place the world would be if we were all the same and enjoyed learning about some of our differences.
Members of the Diversity Committee Ellie, Layla and Asma (with technical help from Eriife) gave excellent Chapel presentations on diversity and what this means. Speaking in front of your teachers and peers is challenging and they informed us all superbly.
The Ted Baldwin and his team from Holroyd Howe have outdone themselves this week, taking us around the world with food from different communities including Chinese food, jollof rice, jerk chicken, curry and pizza. We also had rainbow themed food on Friday. There were a lot of clean plates!
The Geography department started every lesson with a quiz on different cultures. Have a go and see how many you can guess –
The Sports department gave students in year 7 and 8 the chance to try sports which are more traditionally gender specific. The girls enjoyed an afternoon of rugby coaching whilst the boys learnt the basics of how to play netball.
The English and Media Studies department showed the Netflix series ‘Heartstopper’ during lunchtimes where an appreciative group enjoyed the story of Nick and Charlie. In DLS, year 9 students created posters about neurodiversity, talking about the difficulties those with differences such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD or ASD experience but also the strengths of students with these conditions. This poster by Thomas Knowles gives us an insight into dyslexia.
Year 7 and 8 experienced an excellent two days of PBL led by Mr Beckham. Everyone learnt a lot from our guest speakers from BEAMS (a charity for disabled children) and Kent Association for the Blind. Everyone involved themselves in designing a product to enhance the life of someone who was disabled, blind or experienced anxiety with some excellent outcomes.
Waking up on the morning of the Diversity Fun Run organised by Mr Cooper, we were all a little worried about the weather forecast, however the bright sunny afternoon with no sign of thunder and lightning was the perfect setting for our school celebrations. All students spent one lesson thinking about what makes them an individual and creating a slide show to symbolise themselves which is being made into a full school presentation. Then the whole school went to the Arena where three-legged races were run in House teams whilst participants were bombarded with coloured ‘Holi’ paint by some very willing year 12 prefects! A fun afternoon was had by participants and spectators alike! Kiplings were announced as the winning team after a very close-run final.
Lastly, we enjoyed a presentation on Friday morning from two LGBT+ ambassadors from the young persons’ charity ‘Just Like Us’ who told us their personal stories and helped us understand some of the challenges faced by young people from the LGBT+ community and how allies can support them.
As quoted by a year 7 student “Our differences make us beautiful!” I couldn’t agree more.
Mrs Sturrock
Thursday afternoon saw the inaugural Bethany Diversity Three Legged Colour Fun Run and yes, it was as chaotic and fun as it sounds. Kiplings, Roberts and Speakers competed against each other by completing a lap of the three ponds. It was a really happy and obviously colourful event whereby participants ran a three legged race with partners whilst dodging (or encouraging) the human colour powder canons to brighten their outfits as they passed them….our very own Mr Bolton got everyone in the mood with his banter from the PA mic and Miss Bullock pumped up the crowd with her “sic beats”. It was a brilliant afternoon – so much so, we hope to repeat every year!!
Mr Cooper, Director of Outdoor Learning and Enrichment