Posted 29 June 2020
We are excited to have supported a Bristol school, via our Community Fund, to buy a suite of books representing different cultures, languages, heritages, nationalities, families and disabilities, as part of their whole-school theme of ‘Love Thy Neighbour’.
St Bonaventure’s School in Bishopston has been remaking its curriculum with termly themes tying together children’s learning across all subjects. Love Thy Neighbour is all about learning more about the wonderful diversity of humanity, and these books are a great place to start this journey.
Each class chooses a book as part of their Power of Reading topic for the term, responding to the children’s experiences and backgrounds and integrating the learning across all subjects. The school’s library will also showcase a special section as a toolbox for children to read more about diversity as they wish to.
Sarah Ballantine, Headteacher at St Bon’s, said:
“After redesigning our curriculum so that it reflected our school values we also were passionate about ensuring the books we used reflected the rich diversity of our school community. Pride have been amazing in providing funding for our books and we are incredibly grateful and cannot wait to share these books with our children.”
The school made an application to our community fund and was awarded £500 from the grant, and means teachers will be able to represent as wide a range of identities as they can, by buying over 50 books recommended for children to explore our diverse communities in an age-appropriate way. As well as books on same-sex families, one of the books selected is Red by Michael Hall and is a funny, heartwarming, colourful picture book about finding the courage to be true to your inner self.
We are delighted to support St Bonaventure’s in purchasing books that help educate, and raise awareness of, equality and diversity. These books will help spread a message of inclusion and reduce isolation by showing young people that they are not alone.
No young person is born to hate so showcasing that we live in a diverse society, and one where there should be equality for all, is exactly what we should be teaching our children. This is why our family area on Pride Day is so important to us and why it will be one of the areas we will be hosting online in September as part of Bristol Pride Online.
