Black History Month - Arthur Wharton

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 7:40pm

We have been learning all about Arthur Wharton in Year 5 as part of our lessons for Black History Month. October is a time to share, celebrate and understand the impact of black heritage and culture. Arthur Wharton was the first black professional football player in the world (but many of us had never heard of him). He came to England from Ghana in 1883 and many people quickly recognised he was a very talented sportsman. He was a goalkeeper and played for different football teams including Ashton North End! To share all we had learnt about his life, the pupils wrote biographies about Arthur Wharton. 

We then began to think about Arthur Wharton's impact and talked about how football players are treated today. We discussed how players are still mistreated today and looked into the Premier League's campain, 'No Room for Racism'. The pupils created their own posters to share their messages. We read this poem written by Jackie Kay:

This inspired us to write our own poems with some very important messages. Overall, I am so pleased with the work that was produced by the pupils and contributions made to our class discussions. You can see the fantastic work below.