This week marks the start of Black History Month and as part of Putney’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, we were delighted to be joined by Lavinya Stennett, CEO of The Black Curriculum, as our PIE at Lunchtime speaker.

Putney is a learning partner of The Black Curriculum, an enterprise set up to address the lack of Black British history in the UK curriculum. Working with them, we are looking at the whole curriculum and Lavinya delivered a brilliant talk to pupils titled ‘Walking in and on Purpose’.

Lavinya spoke of how her South London and Jamaican heritage, her high school exclusion, and her first class degree in African studies led her to form The Black Curriculum and champion the teaching of  black history for all.

She said, “If you are not learning about black history how can you set yourself up in society to be kind and compassionate…we can’t have peace internally unless we have peace and justice in the world”

Lavinya told the students how “86% of students study Henry VIII and only 9% learn about slavery and the black revolution.”