A Nottingham school is celebrating its diversity through a new languages and heritage project, which champions community and inclusion through song.
Bluecoat Bentinck Primary Academy, a multi-cultural school in Hyson Green, Nottingham, and part of Archway Learning Trust, has more than 40 languages spoken by its pupils. To celebrate the vast multiculturalism at the school, teachers are getting children involved in interactive workshops and learning new language skills as part of the Celebrating Languages and Language Heritage in Nottingham Project.
Funded by Nottingham Trent University, the innovative scheme encourages children to explore cultures from around the globe, with pupils at Bentinck learning Ukrainian folk songs and dances from Iryna Muha from the Ukrainian Cultural Centre, as well as songs in Twi, Swahili and English from Freddie Kofi from the New Art Exchange.
The initiative forms part of a bigger drive to celebrate languages, cultures and diversity within the academy. For example, Bluecoat Bentinck’s reception area showcases a display welcoming teachers, pupils, parents and visitors in various languages. The academy has also started to celebrate festivals from around the world with its students, such as Diwali and Eid.
Emily Burton, Year 4 Teacher and Music Lead at Bluecoat Bentinck, said: “Diversity is at the heart of the curriculum here. It’s incredibly important to us that all our children are represented, hearing different stories and different voices across all areas of school life.
“We’ve found ways to incorporate this through certain subjects such as English and History. But it’s about having those opportunities to celebrate our diversity outside the curriculum too. This project has allowed us to expand what we can offer to our children to ensure they’re seeing, hearing and experiencing diversity as a normal part of their school experience.
“We’re an extremely diverse and multicultural school in Hyson Green and the majority of our children have English as an additional language. We’ve been overjoyed by how positively students and parents have responded to the project, which has boosted the confidence and engagement of so many of our pupils.”
Bluecoat Bentinck Academy is part of Archway Learning Trust, a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with 10 academies across Nottingham, Derby and Derbyshire. It is Nottingham’s biggest MAT, educating one third of Nottingham’s children.
