Lea Endowed Primary School pupils completed the Trust’s Together As One anti-racism education programme in the summer term, supporting 100 per cent of children involved to improve their understanding of racism and discrimination.
The Together As One anti-racism education programme is run together by Preston North End Community and Education Trust and Windrush Initiatives, bringing communities together while working in harmony, and improving people’s understanding of racial issues in society.
Forming part of the Trust’s provision in its Community Engagement and Education strands of work, the programme is delivered over the course of six weeks with tailored lessons and educational videos, helping those who access the programme to improve their understanding of racism.
Areas of focus on the programme include terminology, privilege, discrimination, racism in sport and racism in society.
The programme forms part of the Trust’s Premier League Primary Stars provision, under which cross-curricular PE lessons are delivered to primary school children in Preston while utilising the power and appeal of PNE and football as a whole.
On average, Lea Endowed pupils felt more confident about how they could and could not describe different ethnic groups following the conclusion of the programme, while also feeling more confident that they could make a difference to stop racism.
Schools Provision Officer Sagwati Malabi, who leads on the Together As One programme alongside Windrush Initiatives founder Adrian Murrell, explained: “The pupils have been taking part in our Together As One programme and have engaged in so many topics.
“The way they have engaged in the programme and the things they have contributed have been great to see. It fills me with much hope and encouragement that we’re having this kind of conversation in schools and delivering this programme to educate our young people. I feel very proud and I’m looking forward to hopefully working in lots of different schools.
“As a reward, we’ve given the pupils the Together As One certificate to show that they can take that [knowledge] into the community.”
High-achieving pupils were also rewarded for their efforts with ‘Kick It Out’ t-shirts, showcasing the logo of the anti-racism sports charity that challenges discrimination and encourages inclusivity in sport and wider society.
Lea Endowed teacher Mrs Bolton said: “The children in my class predominantly are white and they haven’t had a lot of experience in their lives of racism and coming across racism in society. I think it’s really helped broaden their understanding of what racism is.
“It’s really helped the children who are black or mixed race to feel supported by their peers and friends. They now have some understanding of their day-to-day struggles and things that might have happened to them outside of school
“This generation is going to be the one that changes things and hopefully cuts racism out altogether.
“They’ve all talked really positively about the Together As One programme and they’re now going to put something together for the rest of the school, so that the younger children in our school can hopefully come through and have that understanding like they do.”
Lea Endowed pupil Alfie added: “I’ve enjoyed doing lessons with Sagwati because it shows an experience of someone who is actually black and it gives you a really good idea of what it is like if you stepped in their shoes for a day.
“It’s just been really good and it really shows me and all of my other class-mates that racism is bad and that you shouldn’t do it and you should teach others. It’s our generation that needs to change the world, not the older generation.”
For more information about the Together As One programme, please email sagwati.malabi@pne.com.