October is Black History Month, a time to celebrate and share the impact of Black history, heritage and culture. We’ve collected a list of resources that can help you do this in your classrooms this month, and all year round, including some recommendations of books we love by Black authors.
Classroom Resources
The Black Curriculum aim to empower all students with a sense of national and cultural identity and belonging through the teaching of Black British history all year round. Find their free resources here.
BBC Teach have a collection of videos, articles and teachers notes to use to explore Black history, heritage, culture and achievements with your pupils.
Explore Black History Month and Experiences, a collection from IntoFilm with the aim to support and empower educators to discuss issues surrounding Black British stories and raise awareness using film.
SLN Book Picks
Click on the photos below to see the excellent books by Black authors we’d like to highlight this month – and follow the links further down to excellent recommendations to ensure your classroom and school library shelves represent our communities. See our latest posts on Instagram or Facebook to find out more about these books and let us know any you would recommend.
Diversify your Bookshelves
Inclusive Books for Children is a great resource to find new and excellent books to build a diverse bookshelf in your class. They have many book lists and are free to use. Check here to find out about shadowing their book awards: Childrens’ Choice Awards
The Diverse Book Awards highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK & Ireland to showcase the talent of marginalised voices, with posters to download to promote the books in your class. They too have readers choice awards, see more here: Readers Choice Awards
Visit our partner bookshop Bookwagon and look through the Representation tag to find books with diverse range of characters and topics so more children can see themselves in the books they read: https://bookwagon.co.uk/product-tag/representation
We hope you enjoy celebrating Black History this month, and year round, in your settings.