Alumna On Equity vs Equality

It was an honour to welcome back alumna and Alleyn’s Governor Faith Locken (Roper's 2011) to talk to Lower School pupils about diversity, equity and inclusion as part of the Alleyn’s Black History Month programme.

Faith is the Founder and CEO of ‘We Rise In’ whose mission it is to inspire, elevate, and develop the careers of black professionals whilst promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in corporate industry. Introduced by Head of PSHE Mr Howell-Harte, she began by asking pupils what they understand by the terms diversity, equity and inclusion, and challenged Year 7 and 8 pupils to think about how diverse their own communities, school and friendship groups are.

Faith highlighted the fact that despite appearances, people are not always starting from a level playing field. She gave an analogy that diversity is inviting everyone to the party, but inclusion is allowing everyone to dance. And, separately she explained that it is equity that affords us the ability to try and level the playing field and to achieve equality.

Showing a short film made in Australia entitled “The School That Tried to End Racism” which helps to visualise inequity by demonstrating privilege due a range of factors including cultural background and skin colour, Faith asked Lower School pupils for their reflections. One Year 8 pupil said, “equality is everyone gets the same, equity is getting what you need” and others commented on the emotional impact that inequality and inequity can cause. 
 
Faith also touched on micro aggressions and reminded pupils of the statements they make and actions they take towards others in life, encouraging them to be supportive and inclusive in their behaviours.

During the presentation, Faith drew on her personal experience of coming from a single parent household. She said:

“If it wasn’t for generous donations and receiving a bursary, I wouldn’t have been able to come to Alleyn’s. Someone provided me a level playing field and from there the opportunity to go to university and on to a successful career.”

Concluding her talk, Faith said that recognising inequity and being aware of our surroundings is the first step in thinking about how we can use our voices to support those that might need it.

She encouraged us all to include those around us and be curious about others to create a much more inclusive environment. Whether that is by sitting with different people in the dining hall, asking questions about people or simply trying new foods from different cultures. She recalled a school trip to Spain where she had the opportunity to try paella for the first time and which sparked a lifelong love of churros!

Thank you, Faith, for such an energetic and thought-provoking talk on such an important subject, and for all that you do for our School.

Events celebrating Black History Month kicked off at Alleyn’s on 2 October with a Senior School assembly given by our Minority Student Union. Pupils across the whole School will enjoy a series of engaging talks, assemblies, and workshops throughout October.

We are also looking forward to having Faith back on 20 October to kick-off the inaugural TEDxAlleyns School Youth event with a talk entitled ‘Cultural Intelligence: How to bridge the gap between different cultures.’ Find out more and book your ticket to see Faith and many others speak on a range of fascinating topics under the umbrella theme All We Can Be.