This week has seen many festivities taking place around the senior school, to celebrate a belated Pride as the school year comes to an end. The Sixth Form portion of Femsoc met for cake, and a joyous recap of the past year, and, after delegating jobs between students, we got to work planning what was to be Northampton High School Pride Week 2021.
We started the week off with a wonderful assembly put together by members of the Femsoc team. A special mention must be made to Leila B for her wonderful work on the PowerPoint, which covered a broad range of topics and focused on how to use people’s preferred pronouns and what language could be considered offensive to the community.
This assembly also kicked off the school-wide scavenger hunt which saw pupils all the way from U3 to 6.1 touring the school, whilst learning about different identities and sexualities, and competing for a prize. The pupils completed the hunt individually, or in groups, by following the emoji clues to the relevant departments in the school. Each department had one or more influential person attached to them who identified as part of the LGBTQIA+ community; these biographies were displayed in their relevant areas, for example, a poster of Ricky Martin was displayed in the Languages corridor. Once they had visited all the departments, students were able to hand in their answer sheets in return for an edible prize. After talking to some very competitive U3 students who were taking part, I found that they were retaining a lot of the information about the community whilst having a very enjoyable time!
We finished the week with a rainbow-themed mufti day; each Year Group and Faculty was asked to wear a designated colour for mufti – making up all the colours of the LGBTQIA+ inclusive flag. The donations from this mufti event all went towards Q Space, an organisation for the queer community in Northamptonshire. Upon entering the school on Friday, you were sure to be met with colourful outfits and a flood of rainbow accessories with flags to match. Pronoun and Pride badges were on sale with stickers being given away in the foyer to further raise money for Q Space. Community spirit was clearly visible as groups of friends gathered around to take pictures with Pride flags and accessories galore.
Overall, it truly was very exciting to see our school coming together after the unorthodox couple of years we’ve had, and all of us here at Femsoc are thankful for everyone’s efforts to support what is, for many of us, an event very close to our hearts.
Millie C
6.1
