Royal High School Bath is committed to diversity, inclusion and real change, our Undivided group meets regularly to discuss issues connected with inclusivity and diversity within the school and the wider world. Students come together to debate and share ideas about how we can move forward in terms of social justice, anti-racism and challenging discrimination in all its forms. Points raised are fed back to SLT for further consideration and action.

The aim is to keep the meetings exciting and dynamic. We discuss the experience of girls within the school, focusing on how inclusivity and diversity can be promoted. We explore the way the curriculum is constructed and how it can be made more diverse to reflect the cultural richness and multiple histories embedded in the world around us. We look at the experience of girls of colour within the school who use the group to share their perspectives. We are increasingly interested in intersectionality, linking anti-racism to issues of disability rights and the experience of LGBTQ girls. We discuss areas of black history that may have been marginalised or overlooked, whether it be the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 or the Wilmington ‘coup’ of 1898, the only time a mob overthrew a democratically elected government in US history. We look at black women of power in the world around us, such as Theresa Kachindamoto in Malawi, who as the chief of 900,000 people, has challenged the culturally normalised practice of child marriages in her community.

Most importantly, the group is a way of sharing ideas. Open to all girls in the Senior School, we also discuss books, films, websites and current affairs. We believe in the power of progressive change, whether it be in a school or in the world around us.

As Amanda Gorman put it in the poem she recited at the recent US presidential inauguration: ‘The new dawn blooms as we free it. / For there is always light, / if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.’