Celebrating Difference Day

“Share our similarities, celebrate our differences”  -M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled

What better way to bring this quote to life than with our first ever ‘Celebrating Difference Day’? Planned by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team, this was a day for our children to reflect on what makes them unique and celebrate this as a community. EDI is taught through JIGSAW PSHEE sessions and also as part of our ethos throughout our daily school lives.

Today, knowledge was extended further by learning about how those who are partially sighted navigate the world, with the help of the KAB (Kent Association for the Blind) and their bus, Iris. Pupils used a white cane, wearing glasses simulating different visual disability, and then directed each other around obstacles. The experience opened their perspective to those who visual impairment is a life long challenge.

A team of fantastic parents also joined us to deliver a range of eye-opening workshops. Pupils learned about living in different cultures, thanksgiving, how life experiences shape who we are. They learned about Lily’s story and the challenges she has faced and the KLAPA charity who have supported her and her family. Pupils found out about hidden disabilities and how they can also be a superpower!

The grand finale of the day was a whole school colour run, which saw our children come together as one, running through a cloud of powdered paints (thrown by some very willing parent volunteers). Each colour represented an element which makes us unique and at the end the children recognised that although they had all been spattered by the same paints, they all looked different, and that there was joy and happiness in celebrating this and embracing it together. We danced, sang, celebrated and grew in our understanding of the world around us.

To finish with another quote, this time from Winston Churchill; “Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common…celebrate it every day”.