St Matthew's C.E Primary School

The month of October is known as Black History Month in the UK. Here at St Matthew's we decided we wanted it to be known as African and Caribbean Celebration Month so that it was a big party month! During this month we learnt about: traditional African stories, Claudia Jones and the Notting Hill Carnival, the MOBO awards and influential black musicians, Benjamin Zephaniah and dub poetry, The Windrush Generation and black Politicians and Activists. 

We were very lucky to have a visit from TAARC whose workshop taught us all about The Windrush Generation. It was great to see some photographs of the people travelling on the Empire Windrush and look at traditional Jamaican foods and play some Jamaican instruments. 

On Wednesday 20th October KS1 and KS2 watched Usifu (The Cowfoot Prince) perform traditional African stories. It was an interactive show with music, dance and song. We had a great time listening to The Cowfoot Prince and even got to ask him questions at the end in his live Q&A session!  

We also had a food tasting session which lead to a whole new school menu for us! Our food group were amazing and brought in a variety of African and Caribbean dishes for us to try. After the taste test session, it was decided that the following items should become more of a permanent fixture on our school menu: Jollof rice with spicy or plain chicken, southern fried chicken, rice and beans and apricot cupcakes. To introduce our new menu to everyone our food group delivered an assembly to everyone explaining what each dish is. Thank you food group for working hard and making our menu exciting! 

With the help of our amazing food group, we had an African and Caribbean celebration meal on Wednesday 20th October. It was delicious and everyone enjoyed their meals. Thank you to our amazing kitchen staff for making a fantastic lunch for us all!

Many children across the school have been very inspired by our African and Caribbean Celebration month and have even produced extra work at home! 

Dorothy created two poems celebrating strong, black women and girls. 

Kweku created a booklet of amazing African stories - he even included quizzes at the back to test our knowledge!