Championing Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at the CPHS Diversity Festival.

On Friday 17 March, Colchester Prep & High School held their inaugural Diversity Festival, championing Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at CPHS and in the community.  Opened officially by the Mayor of Colchester, Councillor Tim Young and Nicola Goodchild Mayoress, the festival provided an opportunity for local community groups to meet with staff, parents and pupils.

Local groups who attended the festival included:

• Pinky Patel who offered Mehndi Henna tattoos
• Africans in the UK, a group that offers support to local families, with a wide variety of beautiful African arts and crafts for sale
• Love2Sign Signing Choir- who invited staff and pupils to sign with them
• The OutHouse, a local LGBTQ+ charity

Pupils were also treated to some Indian street food from Bharuch to Bombay and Chinese noodles from the school’s caterers, Thomas Franks.  Mr Rayner, one of the PE staff, provided the opportunity for the attendees to try out various disability sports.

During the festival, visitors also enjoyed variety of performances from CPHS pupils as well as a cultural art display and the opportunity to participate in a diversity themed art workshop with Mrs Traynor and Ms Haggerty. Performances included.

• A Mental Health Interpretative dance choreographed by Chloe in Year 8,
• Harrison, Martha, Kaylee and Emily(Y8) performed a plethora of poems they selected that represented how they felt about love, culture, diversity, equality, mental health, body image and LGBTQ issues.
• Etienne, Thomas, Theo, David, Gyorgy, Adnaan and Juels (Y7) performed “The Rabbit’s Tale,” a Brazilian folk tale and “The Hat Seller and The Monkey’s,” an Indian folk tale.
• Samba music from the Prep Drumming and Percussion Club.

Pupils from Nursery to Year 10 also enjoyed a range of international dance workshops during the day – Bollywood, Afro beats, Carnival and Haka – from Dance Days of London.

Mrs Gracie-Langrick, Headteacher noted “At CPHS, we encourage all of our children to become the ‘changemakers of tomorrow’s world’.  A world in which we hope they will thrive – but one which is also equitable. As part of this ethos, our school strives to ensure our community is culturally diverse, inclusive and equal – recognising and celebrating each individual as who they wish to be – and it was fantastic to see all of our staff and pupil’s hard work come together for our Diversity Festival.  We do hope that our visitors enjoyed coming together with us to celebrate and embrace cultural diversity. Thank you so much to Mrs Larwood and Miss Door and their team of EDI pupil ambassadors and performers for organising and putting on this fantastic event.”