#SRtRCSpotlight: Football Legends Inspire Students in Anti-Racism Project

This week, the Southern Team visited All Saints C of E Primary School, to kickstart the school’s ‘Show Racism the Red Card Project Week’, as part of their commitment to community work and to inspire, encourage and develop change-makers within their students.

Educator, Jack Cunningham, visited the primary school, in Whetstone, North-West London, and delivered an introductory assembly, highlighting the charity, the work it does and to outline the project week ahead. The pupils engaged excellently and demonstrated respect throughout.

Jack shares his thoughts on the Show Racism the Red Card Project Week and how the week went down,

“This is a brilliant initiative, and I am excited to see what pupils create. For the school to set aside an entire week, to not only learn about and discuss anti-racism, but to also encourage students to take this out and inspire their local community, is a brilliant idea and one I and the charity are happy to wholeheartedly support.”

The assembly included information about the charity, Shaka’s story as well as the showing of our promotional video, which includes features from some current players and legendary ex-players which piqued the attention of the young pupils. Eyes widened and gasps were audible as World Cup winners and legends like Thierry Henry and Mesut Ozil spoke candidly about the charity and the urgency for anti-racism.

Students were enamoured with the footballers speaking to them on the video, with one young Manchester United fan exclaiming, ‘It’s the GOAT, Harry Maguire!’

The assembly was just the beginning, as pupils spent the week learning about anti-racism, with teachers making use of our wonderful Education Hub resources online. Throughout the week, teachers delivered lessons from our hub to help their pupils learn and create posters and other forms of creative media to promote this message not just within their school, but amongst the wider community in Whetstone.

Classroom discussion focused on respect for others, celebrating diversity and all of us being unique and special. Topics included:

• Stereotyping
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Online gaming

In addition to these topic, students went on to examine racism within science, history and in nursery rhymes. Students produced excellent work which has inspired their friends, families and local communities.

The Red Card returned to the school today (Friday) to check-in with the students and view some of the wonderful work they have created throughout their project week. Some younger students performed a heart-warming anti-racism song about our uniqueness and the importance of celebrating diversity. The KS2 pupils created several wonderful posters to be displayed in their school and across their local community in North-West London. This morning, parents were also invited into the classroom to observe the work their children have been doing and were very proud of the quality of work created.

Headteacher Jane Corkill, said,

“Working with you has allowed us to focus on reaching out to all, rather than being contained in the classroom, as we want to spread out into our local community and would love to continue working alongside Show Racism the Red Card in the future”.

Deputy Head, Rachel Adams-Constantine extended her thanks and said,

“We’re so grateful that you came, the online resources are invaluable. Some hard hitting stuff for the older children but they dealt with it very maturely and brought up things we wouldn’t have thought of especially surrounding our language. A big thank you from us!”

The Southern Team would like to extend our gratitude to All Saints C of E for their amazing work throughout their project week and thank staff, students and parents for the engagement and involvement with Show Racism the Red Card.