Photo - BGS Anti-discrimination Group: Helena, Manal, Payal Juhi and Hanifah

At BGS, we value and celebrate the racial and ethnic diversity within our community and are committed to constructively challenging discrimination, so everyone feels safe to be who they are; free from prejudice or bias.

As part of this commitment, our student-led Anti-discrimination working group meet weekly on Mondays at break to discuss their ideas on how to make students more aware of discrimination (how to recognise it and what to do if they ever encounter a situation), and also to help the school be a more caring and comfortable environment for students.

The group recently delivered an engaging presentation for the Year 8 Diversity and Inclusion Day. They are also intending to implement a new PSHE lesson into the Year 7 curriculum about discrimination.

Helena Nicolaides (Upper Sixth) explained their objective: “We, as an anti-discrimination group, decided to do a presentation on discrimination for the Year 8 Diversity and Inclusion day. We talked about the different types of discrimination (direct and indirect) and then they had group discussions, talking about different scenarios involving discrimination. We thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the Year 8s to hear their views on this very important topic.”

Manal Husain (Year 11) added: “We chose to talk specifically about direct and indirect discrimination as everyone is taught what to do in those situations, but not how to identify them. It’s important to know the different types of bias as it affects how you should react to them. We were able to teach this to the Year 8’s and help them understand what is and is not appropriate and it was lovely to spend time with them.”

Hanifah Mia (Year 11) reflected: Students are becoming more aware of certain issues revolving around discrimination. We want them to have an educated, caring and positively nurtured support ground to develop values of a good human being.”