Anti-Racism at Downs Junior School
At our school, we strive for anti-racism to not be a one-off lesson, but to be embedded throughout our curriculum and daily school life. Across subjects and year groups, we actively plan topics and units of work that reflect diverse experiences, challenge stereotypes, and promote fairness and respect. Assemblies regularly celebrate inclusion and equality, providing a space for all children to see themselves represented and to learn about the importance of standing up to injustice. Children also explore the Equality Act and learn about protected characteristics (shown in image below) in age-appropriate ways, helping them understand the value of dignity, difference, and rights for all. We recognise the need to continually reflect and evaluate our curriculum.
Curriculum Corner
Below, you’ll find specific examples of how this is brought to life through our PSHE, History, and Reading curriculum.
PSHE
At Downs Junior School we are dedicated to becoming an anti-racist school in line with Brighton and Hove City Council’s initiative to become an anti-racist city. All of our children take part in a series of PSHE lessons based on two topics “Good To be Me” and “Growing an Anti-Racist School.” These lessons have been devised and written by a group of Anti-Racist lead teachers, employed by the Brighton and Hove City council, along with the PSHE team. The lessons are age-appropriate and all our teachers have been trained in Racial Literacy themselves, and have had further training on how to deal with questions around race and racism, in order to deliver the lessons confidently.
Reading
At Downs Junior School, we believe that books open doors to understanding, empathy, and change. Our reading mission is to build a rich and diverse book spine that reflects every child’s identity while introducing them to voices, stories, and perspectives from all around the world. We are committed to celebrating diversity and standing against racism by choosing texts that encourage respect, kindness, and curiosity. Through strong links with our local community and visits from inspiring authors, we bring these stories to life and help children see the power of words in shaping a fairer, more inclusive world. By sharing and enjoying a wide range of books together, we are nurturing not only confident readers, but also thoughtful, compassionate citizens of the future. We recommend Afrori book shop in Brighton who we have been lucky enough to welcome to our school for assemblies, author visits and book fairs.
History
At our School, we believe that every child deserves to see themselves reflected in what they learn. We have worked hard to decolonise our history curriculum to ensure it is more inclusive, diverse, and representative. We have thoughtfully expanded our topics to include a wider range of voices, stories, and perspectives from different cultures and communities within our local area, the UK and around the world. From learning about ancient civilizations beyond Europe to celebrating the contributions of Black and global historical figures, our updated curriculum helps children understand the richness of shared human history and the importance of fairness, respect, and equality.
Partnership Working
Staff and Parent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council
The Diversity team at school have been working together with parents for 5+ years. We have been developing a holistic approach with staff, parents, governors and pupils themselves to move forward in our anti-racist approach and make meaningful change within our community. It was thanks to this parent group that our work with YouthTheGap first began in December 2024.
We have made a commitment for the staff and parent Diversity and Inclusion group to meet at least once a term, with dates being shared ahead of time to the group and via the newsletter. We are also interested in welcoming new members, so please do contact the office (office@downsjun.brighton-hove.sch.uk) if you would like to join.
We are immensely grateful to our current, previous and future parent volunteers for supporting us with this important topic.
BHCC ARE Team
At our school, we are committed to creating an inclusive and respectful learning environment for all children. As part of this commitment, we work closely with Brighton and Hove’s Anti-Racist Education Team to ensure that our staff receive high-quality, up-to-date training. This ongoing professional development supports us in delivering a curriculum that promotes equality, celebrates diversity, and helps children understand and challenge racism in all its forms—particularly through subjects like PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education).
Over the past year, our staff have taken part in a number of valuable training opportunities, including Anti-Racism Foundations Training, regular Anti-Racism Lead Teacher Network Meetings, the Anti-Racism Annual Conference, and Supportive Cultures training. These experiences have helped to deepen our understanding, inform our teaching practice, and strengthen the inclusive ethos we strive to uphold across the whole school community.
Brighton & Hove’s Anti-Racist Education strategy vision statement can be found below:
Creating a community of anti-racist education settings where the complexities of our diverse interwoven histories are acknowledged, where every child can learn and thrive, where everyone feels safe, equal and we all have a strong sense of identity and belonging.
YouthTheGap
YouthTheGapCIC works directly with schools to tackle educational inequities and co-create solutions that ease the burden on teachers. Through workshops, training, events, audits, and their educational platform, they build long-term relationships with schools and educational staff that evolve into coalitions for meaningful and sustainable change.
They recognise educational inequity as a global crisis, with 285 million young people—17% of the global youth population—out of education. Since COVID-19, existing inequalities have deepened. YouthTheGapCIC’s long-term vision is to stretch its services globally and create a worldwide impact. Guided by decolonial frameworks, YouthTheGapCIC is committed to leading with and making a social impact that fosters intergenerational connection. They believe that addressing injustice requires everyone—not just youth—to be active cultural members of the revolution.
They describe themselves not just as a platform, but as a movement.
Funded by The Blagrave Trust, The Phoenix Way and Brighton University, YouthTheGapCIC has collaborated with its first school, Downs Junior School, to deliver a 3-year Anti-Racist Audit. From December 2024 to December 2027, YouthTheGap and Downs Junior School are setting the tone in the Brighton and Hove community by benchmarking where the school is on their anti-racist journey, identifying current gaps and taking action from a youth, racialised, holistic and community-led approach.
The Anti-Racist Audit is designed to benchmark where Downs Junior School is, and forecast its journey ahead that addresses gaps and adopts what is currently working. The holistic approach harmonises with the school’s current day-to-day activities, staff capacity and the education system’s current delivery requirements, whilst presenting opportunities for growth, expansion and challenging outdated educational methodologies. Inspired by our 4-pillar value system and youth-work, creative and communal teachings and approaches, our co-created action plan leads with social impact and young people at the centre, not as an afterthought.
By 2027, YouthTheGap and Downs Junior School should have progressed through 4 phases in conjunction with a 5-figure framework to evoke change that addresses structural, interpersonal and internalised racism, and inspire the wider Brighton and Hove community to adopt institutional change. Downs Junior School, from its existing culture, shall become a self-motivated and interdependent ecosystem that drives change beyond YouthTheGap, with YouthTheGap remaining as an external support system beyond the 3-year plan.
Contact: hello@youththegap.uk & dyar@youththegap.uk
Website: www.youththegap.uk
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