Blog

The theme for Black History Month 2025, “Standing Firm in Power and Pride,” is both a celebration and a call to action. It honours the resilience and achievements of Black communities while inviting us to actively shape spaces where voices from Black and global majority heritage backgrounds are heard, valued, and celebrated.

At Townley Grammar, our commitment to racial equality isn’t a slogan or a policy document it’s something we live out daily in our classrooms, corridors, and community.

Rebecca Jarrett is Teaching and Learning Team / Art Lead / Writing Lead (Mat cover) / class teacher at Ryders Green Primary School. She was successfully re-accredited as an SSAT Lead Practitioner in March 2025. In this case study she shares how her work leading on developing metacognition across the school has impacted pupil learning.

Everyone is talking about behaviour, and what they are saying is worrying.

Why are Black and Global Majority teachers underrepresented at all stages in teaching? How can the teacher and leader workforce be more representative of the diversity of the pupil community?

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the northern town where my son and grandson live. I arrived just before 10pm. By the next morning, as we drove down the neighbouring streets, each lamppost had a George Cross attached, and Union Jack bunting hung on railings at crossings along the main road.

So, the new Ofsted inspection framework is finally with us, almost exactly two months before it will be used in earnest for the first time.

I’ve long believed in the importance of oracy education. As a young teacher, I was inspired by the Bullock Report, which made the case – beautifully and unarguably – for the importance of language across the curriculum.

There will rightly many tributes to Dave Baker. He was much loved and admired, he brought people together in a way few can do. His height and colourful bow ties meant he stood out in a crowd, and reflected his stature among those who knew him, his warmth and sense of fun.

Since the turn of the calendar year, I have been responsible for SSAT’s offer for supporting schools in supporting student leadership. When I took on this role, I couldn’t have been more delighted because my first brief as a newly appointed assistant headteacher was to build our school’s student leadership offer. Exactly twenty years later, I was being asked to return to where my whole-school leadership journey started.