For over 40 years, the UK has celebrated Black History Month throughout October. Originally, this awareness month was founded to recognise contributions made by people of African and Caribbean backgrounds in the UK over many generations. Now, Black History Month has expanded and progressed to include the history of all black people. This year’s theme for Black History Month is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’; time to take control of stories, celebrate heritage, and ensure voices are heard.
As part of our Black History Month celebrations, Gregory Francis BEM JP, visited our school to ‘reclaim his narrative’. The theme of his presentation was ‘Normalising Diversity’. Gregory spoke to our pupils about his supportive upbringing, being one of nine children and the only child to go to university. Gregory went onto attend three universities to complete three different higher education qualifications. He said it was extremely difficult growing up in Dagenham, when black families were in the minority.
But that did not deter him and at the age of 11 he started attending Karate classes; by the age of 15 he was a Black Belt. Gregory continued his passion for Karate and went to represent Britain at the age of 18, in the World Championships, achieving a Silver Medal. During this time, he travelled a lot and described his experience as ‘healthy development’ as the ‘world is a library’, extremely ‘enriching’. Gregory coached the Great Britain Karate team and was also on the Governing Body who select competitors for events.
Gregory was the first black and youngest magistrate at the mere age of 28, at Barking and Dagenham Magistrates Court. He spoke about having a difficult time when faced with people that he knew and grew up with in the local area, as by law, he had to disclose this information and was removed from their case. Gregory was elected by the Ministry of Justice in 1994.
Gregory was then awarded the British Empire Medal by a senior official at Buckingham Palace. This is awarded for ‘contributions to society’. He attended these celebrations with his wife and family. He described it as a ‘momentous occasion’ for the recognition of his work.
In his free time Gregory volunteers for a charity called ‘100Black Men of London’. This is a community led charity run by black men to provide mentoring and education etc. It has provided a wealth of support to 1000s of young people and positively impacting their lives.
Gregory is now the Director of a cyber security company called 4DCB. He works alongside many people from diverse backgrounds and some are neurodiverse, like many of our pupils. His company ensures and consults on the security of the Dutch Government and National Police in Denmark/Netherlands. Gregory told pupils that those colleagues who are neurodiverse are extremely intelligent and technical minded with an incredible skill set. He stated that ‘some of the best relationships that he has forged in his career have been with people with on the spectrum’.
Gregory said, “Thank you for the opportunity to present to your pupils. The pupils were really good and clearly have excellent staff to develop and progress them.” Gregory’s upbringing, nurture, enrichment activities, education and career are huge strides and accomplishments and the pupils thanked him for sharing this with us.
One pupil said: ‘It was really inspiring to hear of the experiences and achievements from somebody who looks like me.’