OfKingSolomon ‘EVERYONE GETS ON REALLY WELL’

Kamil Tindiey’s family came to the UK from Ghana when he was five and when they moved to London, he started Wohl Ilford Jewish Primary, King Solomon’s younger sister, in year 2. Now in his final year at the high school, he is joint deputy head prefect.

His school experience he describes as “great. Since I was at IJ, I got to know a lot of people. Some of my best friends were Asian and black and Jewish as well, so I had a good mix.

“And that just carried on in KS. It’s a really diverse culture, there’s loads of different ethnicities and backgrounds so we get to understand each other a lot better.”

A Muslim himself, he says they learn about other faiths in Jewish studies and there is an atmosphere of “mutual respect. Everyone gets on really well.”

In his contribution to “Hear Our Voice”, where different pupils recorded talks about their experiences, he focused on the school’s motto,

Hillel’s threepart ethic, “If I am not for myself…”

It was a set

Kamil Tindiey of values, he says, “we have learned from the first few days when we came into the school”.

The Black Lives Matter campaign has led some schools to review the content of their education. Kamil’s message to multi-cultural King Solomon is “to continue what it is doing,” such as the assemblies it runs annually for Black History Month or including books like the one he read in his English course, The Native Son, by the black American novelist Richard

Wright.