#SRtRCSpotlight: Anti-Racism with Pallister Park Primary

Earlier this month the North East Education Team completed a comprehensive programme of work with young people at Pallister Park Primary School in Middlesbrough.

All children in Years 4, 5 and 6 received anti-racism education workshops in school, which focused on working with them to establish a definition of racism, an understanding of the impacts that racism, prejudice and discrimination can have on individuals and communities, and the role that we all have to play in challenging racism through education and allyship.

Assistant Head Teacher Helen Newbold spoke about the context for inviting Show Racism the Red Card into school, and the importance of anti-racism education:

“I think that this is a really significant issue in society, and therefore it is our responsibility to educate both ourselves and the children in our care about the harmful impacts of racism. It’s about the language we use, and the way we talk about people; the environment that we want to create within our school.

Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion is something that we do all year round, particular as part of our PSHE curriculum. If an incident occurs within school, we want the children to know that it will be taken seriously, and the messages from the team at Show Racism the Red Card really supported that.”

“I hope and believe that the children will take some of the messages and learning home with them, which will help bridge the generation gap.”

Reflecting on their experiences of the workshops, 92% of pupils in Year 5 told us that they now had a better understanding of what racism is and could give examples, with 93% saying that they better understood the harm that can be caused by racism.

81% said that they now felt more confident to respond to/challenge racism as a result of having taken part in the workshops.

One pupil said, “I found the workshop really interesting and enjoyed listening to other people’s opinions”, while another said “My friend uses the ‘N’ word, and I don’t think that’s right. I’m going to tell them what I have learned and ask them not to do it anymore”.

During the final workshops, we spoke to Ms Ahmed, a student teacher who has recently secured a full-time post at the school:

“I didn’t receive a lot of equalities training whilst undertaking my teacher training, so I found the approach to the workshops really interesting, and there is lots of content that I’d like to incorporate into my own teaching practice”.

“This area is much more diverse than it used to be, and as a hijab-wearing Muslim women, I was really pleased to see that treating people badly or differently because of their religion or nationality were also part of the definition of racism that the young people explored, because there can be a lot of misunderstanding about those aspects of someone’s identity.”

In addition to the in-school workshops, over 40 pupils from Year 5 also took part in the anti-racism education event delivered with our partners at MFC Foundation at the Riverside Stadium back in April.

Middlesbrough Football Club and the MFC Foundation have been consistent and long term partners of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign, and this year the cohort of Year 5’s from Pallister Park were joined by over 80 children from two additional Middlesbrough schools to take part in the North East team’s New Neighbours workshop, and a workshop focused on:

• Increasing awareness of the hate crime, which supports young people to better understand what identity-based prejudice looks like
• Who can be affected by hate crimes
• What happens when hate crimes are reported to the police

Participating young people were also given the opportunity to undertake a ground tour of the Riverside Stadium, lead by the team from the MFC Foundation.

The young people in attendance then got to showcase their learning and put questions about the issue of racism to a panel of guests made up of Show Racism the Red Card staff and three players from the Middlesbrough FC Women’s team – goalkeeper Ruby Cook, defender Grace Boyes and midfielder and club captain Sarah Burn. The players spoke about their experiences of racism and discrimination, and the ways in which they work to support one another, whilst reinforcing the key messages from the educational workshops earlier in the day.

Speaking about the event, Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East said,

“I’m a huge supporter of MFC Foundation and Show Racism the Red Card so it was a pleasure to meet them at the Riverside Stadium last month.

Having conversations with youngsters at this tender age is going to be so important to give them the good foundations going forward in their later years. It’s a wonderful programme, and I’m delighted that it’s taking place at Riverside.”

Plans are already underway for another series of workshops with pupils at Pallister Park Primary School during the next academic year, including the potential development of pilot workshops for their Year 3 cohort, making it five consecutive years of Show Racism the Red Card workshop delivery at the school.

Addressing why the partnership has been so valuable to the school, Year 5 teacher Miss Linighan said,

“Racism is quite a big issue in the wider community here, and we know that some families have been the targets of racism in their day to day lives. Therefore, it’s really important that we find ways to educate the children in our care, as sadly we know that some people in the local area hold some very challenging views.

The workshops themselves are really accessible – including for lower ability pupils and students with additional needs, and I was really pleased to see that the issue of racism on social media was addressed by the workshops too – as a teaching staff, we are naturally concerned about the type of information that young people are coming across online and on social media, and the kind of people they are engaging with.

As recent events have shown, it is very difficult for teachers and parents to monitor this, so it’s even more important to reiterate messages about appropriate behaviour and safety online, which the workshops did really well”

If your school or college is based in the North East of England and you are interested in booking a workshop with us, contact us today!