Black History Month 2025 - School Workshops

This year we are celebrating the achievements of some Black scientists and inventors, all of whom should be far more widely known than they are.

“Thank you to you and Chris for helping to organise and deliver an amazing Women in STEM day at our school. All of the children and staff have been so positive about the assembly and workshops, and we are very grateful to you for such an engaging day. Many of the children have been able to recall knowledge for the day and it has been brilliant to take part in a day that is full of sharing scientific concepts, rather than just relying on awe and wonder. Lots of the children are keen to share what they have learnt from the day at our science fair next week. Please pass on my enormous thanks to Chris for providing such a creative day so early on in the term to help us launch our science week. I look forward to working with you again in the future.” Pyrcroft Grange Primary School, Best of British Women in STEM

A day starts with an opening assembly exploring the extraordinary achievements of Mary Seacole. This is followed by a series of workshops, for a year group at a time (apart from EYFS, where we prefer to work with each class separately). These use immersive techniques (including games and drama-based approaches) to introduce children to their selected individual – all linked to a science strand that the children will be exploring at some point over 2025/26 – and culminate in collaborative poems. The individuals are …

EYFS: Dr Frederick Akbar Mohamed … one of the UK’d first non-white consultants, a man whose work on blood pressure is still saving lives today!

Year 1: Lyda Newman … a Black American woman who used her understanding of materials to invent the first modern hairbrush!.

Year 2: Jagadish Chandra Bose … Indian scientist who made important discoveries about ways in which plants respond to their environments.

Year 3: Sarah Goode … a Black American woman who overcame all the odds to both open her own furniture store and use the science of forces to invest the first reliable fold-up bed.

Year 4: Ibn al Haytham … a scholar from the Golden Age of Islam who was the first to understand the properties of light – and who created the first pinhole camera outside China.

Year 5: Katherine Johnson … a brilliant mathematician who worked in the shadows to endure that Neil Armstrong got to the moon (and that the ill-fated Apollo 13 astronauts made it back to Earth).

Year 6: John Edmonstone … a man who, born into slavery, went on to find fame and influence in Scotland – and who set Charles Dickens on the road to formulating his theory of evolution.

Each school booking a day of workshops will receive our beautifully designed Fact Files on each of the seven individuals – and illustrated versions of all the collaborative poems.