March Monthly Round-up - England

The Education teams in England worked to collectively deliver a series of informative, creative workshops and events during March 2019. 

It included:

70 workshops

140 hours of workshop activities, excluding assemblies and fun fitness sessions

3027 young people participated

21 Primary schools   

4 Secondary school 

1 Football Club event

The North East team have had a mega busy March and have been out and about across the whole of the region and beyond.

We have delivered 53 workshops over 106 hours in to 18 Primary/First Schools and 1 Secondary School and in to 1 football club event reaching a total of 1,470 young people. 

Comments from teachers at our school workshops demonstrate the positive impact they have had on the young people in attendance:

• Very engaging, children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and went away with a good understanding of racism

• The team were fantastic and covered so much in the time available. I know it impacted greatly on some of the children

• All children were actively involved and loved taking part

• What I most liked about the workshop was the honest discussion with children tackling words used and the meanings behind them - gave the children reasons why they were not accepted

• I most liked the discussions involved explaining the historical significance behind the racist vocabulary that is used. This gave the children a better understanding of why such words are offensive

• Please pass on my thank you to both of your staff that came along to Saltburn. They were fantastic and handled the extra pressure of having a film crew on hand too!

• The children thoroughly enjoyed the day and were better informed as a result of it!

On Thursday 14th March we supported the Campaigns team to deliver an excellent event for local schools at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium. Over the course of the morning, we delivered three 45 minute workshops to 90  young people focusing on the judgements we make about people without realising, defining what racism is and  considering examples of racism. The young people were engaged and actively participated in all the sessions. Accompanying teachers were very positive about the work we had done with the young people, with many saying we had delivered key messages that the children had responded to.

“As a result of the delivery, people involved and how you provided them with a safe space to explore prejudice, use of language and preconceptions, they totally engaged and challenged their thinking.”

Wellfield School Kickoff@3 event - Durham

Middlesbrough Club Event 14th March 2019

The team has also been heavily involved, again alongside our Campaign colleagues, in the delivery of adult training to Home Office staff and in further Train the Trainer sessions with these staff . We have also delivered adult training for staff at Manor Walks Shopping Centre in Cramlington and for a number of NHS staff which was very well evaluated. In total, we have reached 121 adults during March.

"It was very thought provoking, inspiring and structured in a way to encourage this. I am sure both teams will all take a lot from it when all the sessions are completed"

                                                                                                                                                                                                Feedback from the manager of the NHS Trust

We delivered a  presentation of our work at the UNISON AGM and spoke at the TUC AGM Conference, both great opportunities to thank the Unions for their continued support and to showcase our work.

On Thursday 21st March we were delighted to be asked to support a Kickoff@3 football tournament for schools from Northumbria Police, Durham Constabulary and North Yorkshire Police force areas held in Durham. We developed connections with many new schools, police from other areas and the RAF Engagement Team. By the end of the day over 100 young people were proudly wearing their Show Racism the Red Card wrist band.

At the end of 2018, we spent time developing our evaluation processes to ensure that we are able to fully evidence the impact of our work. In January, the pilot phase of our evaluation began and the end of March marks the end of the pilot. Over the coming weeks and months we will be reviewing what we have learned from the process and adapting and modifying our evaluation to ensure we have a robust model which will deliver a strong evidence base which clearly shows the impact of our work.

In the Southern Region, the Education team delivered 17 workshops, over 25 hours, to a total of 1557 young people across the South Region in 3 Primary, 3 Secondary schools and in to 1 football club event.

The Southern team have also delivered staff training at Colchester FC.

Steve(Southern Team Manager) was busy during March attending several events showcasing our work at Tell Mama Event, a Kick it Out Event and a conference in aid of Stephen Lawrence.

We also supported an event hosted by the Mulberry School for Girls called: Mulberry Youth Conference 2019: ‘Unite Against Hate.

North Wales Teachers Show Racism the Red Card

Around 40 teachers and youth workers attended a Show Racism the Red Card training day funded by Welsh Government in March. 

Sessions included an exploration of unconscious bias; terminology (just what IS it ok to say when discussing the thorny topic of racism?); and how to respond to, record and report a racist incident in school. 

The aim of the training is to give teachers confidence both to tackle racist incidents in school, and to develop and embed anti-racism into their teaching.  

The sessions are designed to provoke thought and discussion on a range of issues and include opportunities for group discussion and some interactive tasks. Indeed, lively discussion was had on the day about the use of mother tongue languages in school and dealing with inappropriate language. 

Participants enjoyed the day, commenting on the good variety of methods to convey messages.

"Good range of tasks. Good pace to sessions."

"Interesting, informative and very well led day." 

"Three fantastic presenters. This session was definitely worth attending."