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To: The Willink School
Decolonising the Curriculum
We feel our education lacked an in-depth teaching of the true realities and effects of British colonialism and imperialism, both in a contemporary and historical sense. We remember studying the Transatlantic Slave Trade briefly in Year 8 History, but without any true understanding of the systematic and structural racism that Britain created, both then and still perpetuates now. We strongly believe that this element of history should not go untold to school pupils, even at the young age of 13, as we were in Year 8. We are glad that our school has taught that, amongst various other topics such as racism in PSHE, as this is more than what was taught to many.
The Willink School’s constructive and modern approach to learning was both recognised and valued. Several teachers have spoken about issues of colonialism, race and social-racial inequality either in their lessons or in assemblies. However, these discussions were not in great depth and were only taught as a small part of optional GCSE and A-Level subjects such as History, Sociology and Geography. We ask that the school takes further steps to teach more about colonial history and modern-day social issues, either as part of their existing humanities topics or during PSHE classes to lower year groups.
Why is this important?
A comprehensive understanding of Britain's own influence in colonial rule should be at the epicentre of the social understanding of current and essential issues such as racism. Britain’s role in colonialism and the effects this continually has globally, as well as upholding white privilege and institutionalised racism, are subjects that, if taught to teenagers, would do so much for deconstructing racism in our current society and in British culture as we know it. This is especially important in an area like Burghfield Common, where over 93% of the population is white.
Although this is a subject that should be taught in schools across the UK, the homogeneous population in Burghfield Common and the surrounding areas means that it is particularly important that this issue is taught at The Willink School. We would like nothing better than ensuring that future generations of Willink pupils have a whole, comprehensive education at the school.
