Thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion

What could be more important for any school than helping an individual realise their potential? Creating a culture where each and every student can thrive and be happy, both personally and academically, is fundamentally what school is all about.

At Putney High School that goal has always been central to our ethos. We aim to ensure a democratic culture, recognising that there is no typical Putney student and that we all have different voices, vulnerabilities and strengths. No community exists without its individuals after all, and without variety, how dull humanity would be.

Rather than being defined by our differences though, we choose to be defined by our inclusivity.

Over the past two years, we have been working with all stakeholders to ensure that equity and equality are felt by everyone at our school, regardless of differences in race, religion, sexuality or disability – and crucially, that they are fully embedded within our culture.

With increased awareness and engagement through debate, education and more prominent student and staff voice, every day provides an opportunity for better understanding. And all these different voices mean a lot of listening goes on, whether in Assemblies, through the pastoral curriculum, focus weeks, academic lessons, school partnership opportunities, recruitment, or even clubs.

Putney has seized every opportunity to better understand and to celebrate diversity. Not only are there a host of activities and societies where students and staff can share and discuss ideas: POCSOC (People of Colour Society) LGBTQ+ Society, Diversity Society and FemBookSoc to name a few; there is also a dedicated Diversity and Inclusion Week every year with highlights including an extremely popular Fashion Show alongside sessions on intersectionality and unconscious bias.

Our biennial, PIE2 Day (Putney Ideas Exchange) last year gave us a whole day off-timetable to focus on ways to celebrate diversity and promote inclusion. We heard from keynote speakers: paralympic athlete, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Putney alumna and choreographer Aicha McKenzie who reminded the assembled audience how, “we are all different, that is our superpower”.

With talks from The Black Curriculum, workshops and seminars, dancing and ‘paralympic sport’ and even the launch of a student designed “Diversity app”, there really was something for everyone, and not just those at Putney. We welcomed students from a number of local schools who joined our Diversity Panel and POCSOC debates, sharing their ideas and experiences and making the day a valuable opportunity for greater connection with our local schools and community.

Throughout the academic year, there is huge value and enjoyment to be had in all of these events, but it is important to us that they are more than just “events,” that they are beliefs and commitments that as a community we live and breathe; firmly embedded in every aspect of school life. For this we have also needed to look more deeply at the curriculum itself.

Even Maths has found new ways to be more inclusive, devising verbal problems using situations chosen to normalise for example same-sex partnerships or disability. Amba confirmed that it has been going down well, “In our School Council meetings we learnt that Year 11 maths students have been discussing the life of Alan Turing – they loved it and found it really interesting.”

Languages week is an annual celebration of multi-culturalism in our Senior School and for the Juniors, their Mother Tongue Festival celebrates the many different languages and cultures which make up our school community. Even before younger pupils have an understanding of inclusivity, they begin to learn the fundamental importance of kindness – a solid keystone of the Junior curriculum.