Recent events have highlighted the ever increasing need for pupils to understand about our shared history. South Asian Heritage Month begins on the 17th July but we wish schools to start their events in July, to ensure no child missed out. South Asian Heritage Month is a new celebration having been created out of a desire to learn more about South Asian culture and history that has an impact on our world today. This cross-curricular topic not only covers many elements in History but also addresses many fundamental SMSC and PHSE aspects of the curriculum as a whole.
Resource packs
The Multicultural Development Team (MDT) are working with the Telford and Wrekin interfaith Council (TWIC) to deliver free resources and support, specifically for Primary and Secondary schools, to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month. This is due to the funding received to reduce hate crime from the Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion’s (PCC). It is a great way to embed learning around Equality and Diversity in the curriculum.
The resources created by the MDT Team provide staff with the knowledge and resources to plan, deliver and support pupil’s knowledge and discussion of issues around South Asian Culture, heritage and history by focusing on the five key themes of:
Identity; History; Creatives; Sports; Health and Well-being.
There is also the opportunity to explore key questions that may arise from recent events in Telford and nationally to provide a greater knowledge of the diverse cultures in Telford and Wrekin. This all helps schools to promote pupil’s understanding of fundamental British Values and develop their knowledge of Equality and Diversity in the world today.
South Asian Heritage Month Primary Teaching Resource
South Asian Heritage Month Secondary Teaching Resource
Kabaddi
The Multicultural Development team (MDT) worked with the British Kabaddi Association to deliver free training and support, specifically for Primary and Secondary schools, to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month through sport.
Following the successful Kabaddi taster sessions arranged in Telford and Wrekin schools in 2022, MDT was pleased to be able to offer these again to schools, thanks to funding provided by Safer Stronger Communities. Kabaddi is an extremely popular sport, similar to tig and rugby, which promotes team work. It was led by Moinul Islam MBE. He is an official representative of the British kabaddi Association and he received his MBE for founding ’Outta Skool’ which offers multi-sports to underprivileged young people. He has developed and delivered Kabaddi as a GCSE physical Education syllabus and has been delivering it for the past 15 years. Moinul is currently the National Kabaddi development officer for the English Kabaddi Association.
“’Moinul led a training session for both primary and secondary teachers followed by two sessions for our students. The students learned the basic rules then really enjoyed competing as a team to try and outwit each other. Kabaddi is very active, fast, tactical and enjoyable game where effective communication is a crucial part of the sport. One of the students said Moinul was ‘a brilliant teacher who gave loads of advice and helped us work better as a team’. Moinul was inspirational and we would like to thank him and the Telford and Wrekin Council for organising this opportunity for our staff and students. We look forward to implementing the sport of Kabaddi into our lessons and extra-curricular programme next year.’’
Mike Thomas, PE Lead at Charlton School
2022 SAHM Workshops
In the Summer term 2022 SAHM workshops, MDT and Telford and Wrekin Interfaith Council teamed up with STUWA (Shropshire and Telford United Women’s Association) to provide workshops to schools. Schools were able to access the workshops and this gave them a flavour of south Asian culture.
“The workshop was a great insight into traditions in a South Asian country. What we covered will feed nicely into the topics that we study during our project week. Children were excited and engaging, some going home and finding out more traditional clothing from other countries around the world.” Millbrook Primary school
“Fantastic experience for our pupils. Staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. All children were engaged and asked lots of questions. The children have wanted to have more workshops that are similar. It has built the confidence of some of our vulnerable pupils. Tutors delivering the sessions are going to make contact with school to provide and offer of how we can incorporate future sessions into our wider curriculum offer.” Donnington Wood Junior school.
“Two of our school ‘Courageous Advocates’ are of South Asian Heritage (Malala Yousafzai and Mahatma Ghandi) and this emphasised the importance of learning about them for the children. It also make the link between what we learn about them, to South Asian Heritage Month.The children were engaged throughout the workshops. They loved the learning at the beginning of the session with David, and were all keen to answer his questions. They also loved the information that Sairana shared about India and learnt lots. They loved the dancing with Sairana and this made it especially memorable. We do Bollywood dance in PE so it made a great link with other subjects and South Asian Heritage Month for the children.
Thank you so much to both David and Sairana for coming in and leading the workshops. The children absolutely loved the whole session and learnt a great deal. David and Sairana both had such a lovely manner with the children when speaking with them, which meant the children felt completely at ease when answering or asking questions, and doing the activities. It is certainly something that they will remember.” Newport Junior school
South Asian Heritage Month workshop photos
If you are interested in more information about South Asian heritage month you can visit the official webpage:
https://www.southasianheritage.org.uk/about
or contact MDT directly:
