Its like im being interrogated, guv. It wasnt me, ive got no comment to make, and id rather not be here. I met Chaz In London in 2007. I think my book came out that i had just done and chaz actually said that hed bought my book. I can remember i was like youre the first person i know that bought my book. I met his work before i met the man. Chaz is just a creative visual genius with what he does visually, making stuff like that and people who get to know me, i write, i talk, im a storyteller. I didnt want children to be me. I know it can sound silly but fundamentally that was it. The classroom is everywhere, the walls are invisible, the boundaries are none. Well make it free, well make it as accessible as possible. I grew up mainly in easton and across to st pauls. When i was about two and a bit, three years old, my younger brother ended up being adopted and then i was sent away to go live with my grandparents and i came to bristol to live with my mum, who was settling with who would become my stepfather. I suppose my whole thing with the police kind of started here. Its like, i canjust remember my mum went out to the car and she got her face slashed and mugged just at the end, where they park the cars. And then she came back to the house with Blood Dripping down the side of her face and we just sat down on the stairs waiting for the police to turn up after she called them and they never came that evening. They never came. It was the following afternoon when the police came to the house. I kind of went a little bit off the rails because id done an exam called the 11 plus. I did really well so i was told that id get a scholarship, i was awarded a scholarship to go to a top school in bristol, a fee paying school. I got to go and see my dorm, i was showed my bed and then i think 4 6 weeks later we got a letter, or i was then informed that that would not be happening, wed have to pay for this position. And i remember at that point i was like, even if im doing good im treated wrong, so wrong it shall be. Hows it feel to be back . Theres a lot of memories here. Thats what there is. Theres also a lot of pain as well. I remember i was getting a beating once with a shoe and i remember taking the shoe out of the hand and throwing it down the stairs. I remember a discussion being held at the bottom of the stairs after. My stepdad saying to my mum, its either him or me and then later on that day social services came and took me away. My next stop was vinny green. Vinny green was a big childrens home. Boys and girls were housed there. I went from being a child that was excelling in education to suddenly being given work for a five year old. It was a very eurocentric curriculum and education and everybody that achieved, everybody that was great, was european so it kinda makes you feel less than when youre not seeing representation that looks like you being championed. So, thats why we do what we do we do. Good afternoon, mary. Good afternoon, noah. Good afternoon, josh. Keisha and good afternoon, mr hooper. How are you . Good day so far . Were doing something a bit different today as you may have noticed. I learnt history but i didnt go to school to get told that this is white history, then its like an add on its oh well, heres black history its not really as important as history. This is black history. It shouldnt be an add on to a curriculum, it isjust history. I want to talk about how many black historical figures do you know about . Owen, who is this man . Im not really sure. 0k. Kaisha, do you think you could help him out at all . Didnt he like help with a protest for like black rights or something . Absolutely and doctor Martin Luther king, he spent pretty much his whole adult life campaigning for black rights. Do you learn about black history outside of black History Month . So discuss with each other then well feedback, 0k . Not really. Definitely not as much as we should, it should be an annual thing. It shouldnt have to be, this is the month where you learn about this minority, and this is the one where you learn about this minority and all the rest of the time you have to learn about the majority. That shouldnt be how it is. We tend to resource black History Lessons for ourselves. And you know that does take time, that does take a lot of effort. It would be fantastic if we had more resources to use straight off the bat. All right, guys thank you so much for all your hard work today. There were some fantastic responses. There is so much that im going to be looking at. Im going to be looking at our curriculum and seeing what points we can add on. Can you give me a fact about world war 2 . People were killed, or they got gassed. We get students that have often gone to several mainstream schools before. Hi, lawrence, how are you . Good, yeah, and you . For me, school didnt really work. So in childrens homes, or even detention centres, any places like that with children being removed, i wanted for us to create something that could be used in all these different spaces notjust in school. Guys, this is lawrence. Lawrence, this is shahid and liam. We are about direct action. Were about getting in front of the students, getting in front of the teachers. I went to six secondary schools, i moved from a lot of schools. When i looked through textbooks in school, everybody that had achieved, no one ever looked like me and it kind of made you feel that you could never be great. So, we make education resources, bringing to light stories and histories that are often not used in normal mainstream education. So weve got people like the Haitian Revolution and they fought against the english and the french to gain their freedom from enslavement. Youve got Samuel Sharpe and paul bogle, and also someone called nanny of the maroons. What were about is looking at the people who under great constraint achieved amazing things. Look what they did, look what they achieved and we can all learn from their experiences. Lets listen. Ill catch you and you, young man, and will be good, yeah. And just try and do the best that you can. Just know that sometimes it can go a little bit wrong but you can always try to put it back together, yeah. All right. Im going to be looking for things that sort of hook their attention, get them excited, something visual, Something Like that, yeah. I were in a warehouse just on the outskirts of bristol. Theyll learn more about this history and also some of the techniques and some of the skills needed to help them teach this in a more comfortable fashion. If i can take anything out. Of today, hopefully a better understanding of howl to implement diversity into our curriculum. You know something with poetry or something visual as an art teacher. Ill be looking for, so Something Like that, yeah. Morning, im lawrence hoo. Were here to celebrate that we can make a change and we can be the difference that so many people want to see. At the heart of a lot of our lessons are illustrations that tell a story about the individuals and also give it a kind of a contemporary context, because a lot of these characters are distant history. The National Curriculum doesnt have to change for us to get this material into class. Currently, classes are taught in modules of say, for example, the Second World War or migration. So, our lessons are structured around individuals. Those individuals can be placed within those modules. What that does is has the effect of enhancing the learning of that section of history. Theres one section thats coming up here which is covering pre colonial map of africa, so to kind of trying to get the class to learn about, you know, what these civilizations were before they were rebranded. Ijust wanted to kind of run through the series. So then weve got nanny the maroons, which is another image thats a similar kind of aesthetic. Warrior queen. Freedom and Self Determination should be everyones birthright. Nanny of the maroons, what an amazing story of a woman who single handedly galvanised a whole community in the jungles ofjamaica to fight the british army back into retreat. Yeah, i know, i hadnt seen the pictures before and i was like ping. Oh, my god. Hopefully thats sparked some interesting conversations. So do we have any questions . What do you think is sort of the best way to sort of approach heads of department, Senior Leadership about bringing these lessons to the classroom . I would go in with that kind of, be inspiring. I you walk straight into school and you see four or five massive posters of individuals of african, African Diaspora i heritage. Then the kids are i going to start asking who is this person . And then theyre going to start asking like is there a lesson i about this person and can we start, can we start learning about that . David rawlings is amazing. Hes one of the teachers that weve come across in ourjourney. Hes devoted a lot of his time to helping us develop this material. And when he speaks, teachers listen. I think liam and shahid are really going to enjoy it. I think theyll enjoy hearing more of the poems and maybe doing some artwork around the images that theyve seen in responding to those. Who wants a poster . Weve got queen nzinga or imhotep. Theres an imhotep one here. Im going to put it up in my classroom next year. Hopefully they ask a little bit about who they think it might be. Why do i maybe have it in my classroom. Hearing what theyre i talking about, hearing about the resources, seeing the resources they have. Yeah, it makes me feel. Confident in applying that into the classroom. I think the woke thing comes from a perception that its trend based what were doing. Thats really what theyre getting at when they say woke. Theyre saying, well this is just a bandwagon that youre jumping on. This is something that is just not going to be relevant in 10 years time. Its been relevant for hundreds of years. Woke just makes me laugh. Wokes a joke. Yeah, literally. I was going through some old photographs trying to find some old pictures of My Time In America and found this recipe for some prawn soup, and i thought lets make it, cos this is from my from my mums early days. So, yeah, lets see how i do. Im going to do badly. Guess what . Im charless mother. My mums had a huge influence on my life, i mean shes been monumental. Take a few of these, wash them out and theyll add a nice fragrance. Shes taught me humility in the face of real oppression, real racism. Its starting to take shape. I grew up in the south of us and it was segregated america. Schools were segregated, i so black children went to one school, white children went to another, communities i were segregated. Bon appetit or whatever they would say. Boy, thats nice, isnt it . Its pretty good. We were surrounded by that heritage and history when i used to go to the us to see my grandparents. Here we are camping, yeah. Yeah i dont know who took that one. Thats got to be your dad. I used to look up at the picture on the wall of a Newspaper Cutting of my grandfather, who was one of the first activists who refused to sit at the back of the bus. Most people will know rosa parks and her refusal to sit on the back of the bus. Well, my father was the second person to do that in america. Rosa parks was the third. That was really tasty, charles, thank you very much. Well, i resurrected something from the past. In real life i hold the role of her majestys lord lieutenant. There are 97 of us across the country and in the absence of a member of the royal family are the most senior person in the county. This is a studio that they have given this is a studio that they have given us this is a studio that they have given us access to his today. 3d� s given us access to use today. So its actually called the Mass Hallucination Studio so maybe everything were seeing isnt even here. Malizah is an incredible poet. Shes gonna be delivering the lonniejohnson poem that the children will see in their lesson plan. All ill show you the studio where youre gonna record. Ive written all the poems that the lessons would be made from. We got seven different poets to deliver the poems so that hopefully people it helped to engage to a wider audience and malizah� s one of those poets. Massive attack have been brilliant. Theyve written music for us, theyve injected money into our projects. They have been long standing supporters of what we are trying supporters of what we are trying to supporters of what we are trying to do. Say hello. It is amazing like, i rememberwhen i first started poetry i was like, oh, id love to do something, like i love Massive Attack and all that and its like surreal, actually surreal. Lonnie johnson worked for nasa. He then invented the super soaker, the nerf gun and i thought that has got to be something that children have got to find enjoyable. The levels are set, so ill just put it into record. I so i thought that would be a good way of getting them engaged into science. Lonniejohnson was born in mobile, alabama on october the 6th 1949, when Racial Discrimination and segregation were legal, not a crime. Its an informative type piece so you want to put certain facts and information in there that the children, just by hearing the poem, they could get a good understanding of what lonniejohnson has done. This is the legacy Lonnie Johnson has left for us all. Thats the one. You smashed that. I remember when i was in school wed always talk about history, you know, it is only showing the bad stuff about us. I think having a positive shine on our history is what everybody has always talked about from the beginning of time. Well, the next stage is chaz will get his hands on it. Hes then going to make a video that will go with the poem. Well put that together, which is always captivating. I feel bit nervous, im not History Teacher but im excited to see what their outcomes are. I hope they enjoy it as well. Just take it all in. Eyes here. Its like sugar cane, 0k. Looks like sugar cane, ok, cool. Shahid, what can you see . Itsjamaican. Why do you think that . Theres the jamaican flag. Were going to look at the poster and see what ideas they have about the figure on the poster, learn about the story of samuel sharp and then were going to create a artistic response to that. Samuel sharpe was able to create his own movement through his standing in the community so you know people can look to that and go well if people respect me then i can get what i want done. What id like you to do is make your own poster about some of the things you think are important based on some of the things that you think are important about the story. Whats his name . Samuel bravery sharpe. Hi, lawrence. Hi, beka, how are you . Im good, nice to see you again. Ive come back and see what they think of it. Theyre not going to sugarcoat it if they havent enjoyed it or dont find it engaging. So, what, youvejust done, the Samuel Sharpe lesson . Yeah, we have, yeah. What weve done here is try to tell his story through artwork. Yeah, so, liam, do you want to explain to me your picture . Ive got the battle ships for when the protest got brutal. The victory for the people that believed in god to get out and i have to jamaican flag. Its a joy to see. Yeah, are you pleased with yourselves . Yeah. Thats the longest the boys have ever stayed in a classroom. The fact that they were in there for so long and focused it was really good. Im chuffed to bits. I think it was better than a normal lesson because in a normal lesson i would probably have walked out by now. I enjoyed myself. Its showing that you can educate as long as you can engage in many different spaces because fundamentally it is storytelling and storytelling can cross across many forms of the curriculum. So the lesson todays title is, what was the significance of Queen Nzingas life . Im really hoping that theyll see this story of queen nzinga has been left out and why its important to look at her life and look at the significance of it. African queens have ruled admirably throughout the ages against invading colonisers,. Who are illuminated on pages. Queen nzinga is one such queen,. Inspiring, resilient and regal,. Who stood tall, proud and defiant knowing i she was their equal. If youre bringing your children up within a monoculture, they stand to gain less than the individuals that have a broader understanding of the wider world around them. Can you write down four reasons given by the poem why queen nzinga deserves a place in history . Queen nzinga was a queen in africa, she was royalty, she came from a royal line and i think thats a lot that was removed from what African History was. It was civilised, it had royalty. I think she deserves a place in history because she managed to fight against the portuguese and other europeans for 30 years and still keep them at bay, which i think is really amazing. Definitely, yeah. Owen, what was that word we used earlier . She was trusted and loyal, what did she have from the people around her . What did she have . Respect. She was able to lead a revolution of and unite all of the African Kingdoms L who were rivals at that time to be able to fight| off the europeans. Excellent, yeah. You havent looked at any other sources today apart from the poem and the poster and look how much youve gotten out of that. Yeah, im really happy, i think it went really well. What i really wanted them to get from it is i wanted to get some of theirjuices flowing in terms of what they were thinking and open their minds up. A lot of Different Things that we would not normally learn about in our normal History Lessons. She seems like a very strong and powerful person that affected quite a lot of countries and people. Ive never heard of her before and shes such an inspiring i figure but its so surprising and appalling to me that weve never heard about her before. There is a hunger. There is a hunger for more, theres a hunger for change whether thats coming from the kids themselves or whether thats coming from the teachers. There is, there is a need for something new. Were not arrogant enough to believe we have the answer. We havent got the answers were a tiny part of the puzzle. Hello. Wednesday brought a top temperature of 22 celsius in jersey. It was a warm day for some, but a wet day for others, and that is all because of this big, broad area of low pressure, really the engine room of our weather at the moment. Its been sucking warm air of from the south, but its also been Throwing Pulses of Rain Northwards and it will continue to do so. A soggy start to thursday for many, but a mild start. Some of the heaviest rain through the morning will be found across the southeast of england, up into east anglia, the east midlands, then into lincolnshire and parts of yorkshire. But some of that rain likely to get as far west as east wales and parts of the west country. This lump, though, of really heavy rain will work its way northward through the day, essentially hugging this north sea coast, so running into North East England and southeast scotland. All the while, things brightening up from Northern Ireland a much drier day to come here. Some sunny spells developing for wales and the south and southwest of england. Not as windy as it was on wednesday and still quite warm. Actually, temperatures through south wales, Southwest England and the Channel Islands could well get close to 20 degrees. But into the evening, this lump of very heavy rain justjourneys northwards across scotland. It may tend to ease a little as the night wears on as we get into the first part of friday, then another swirl of showers pushes in from the southwest. It does feel a little relentless in terms of these Weather Systems pushing up from the south, but it will be another mild start to the day. Low pressures still in charge for friday, quite a few white lines, isobars, squeezing together here that shows that we will have some really strong winds. A windier day on friday, certainly around some of these western coats. Showers or longer spells of rain with some Thunder And Lightning drifting northwards, some spells of sunshine in between. These are the wind gusts. We can expect winds gusting up to around 50 mph for some of these exposed coasts of Southwest England and west wales. But that Wind Direction is a warm Wind Direction, so where you see some sunshine in east anglia, highs perhaps of 21 degrees and a fairly warm day elsewhere as well. Into the weekend, this first low will weaken a little, drifting northwards. Theres another one hot on its heels. In between, though, this brief range of higher pressure, so a slice of something a little drier. I think we can say for the weekend, there will be some drier interludes, but still the chance of some rain at times. Bye for now. tx weather welcome to bbc news, im ben boulos. Our top stories fresh chaos for the British Government as the Home Secretary leaves herjob with a blistering resignation letter. Its a further blow to the prime minister, liz truss, whose premiership was already under threat. I am a fighter and not a quitter