Lessons In Anti-Racism From Blackpool Pupils
24/01/2013
A hard-hitting DVD and educational resource pack developed with young people from the North West will be used in schools across the country to tackle racist and religious hate crime and bullying.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Anthony Walker Foundation (AWF) worked together to produce the teachers' toolkit that provides classroom activities designed to increase pupils' understanding of hate crime and prejudice and how to challenge it.
Pupils from schools in Manchester and Lancashire, including Bispham High School in Blackpool, helped to devise and acted out the dramatised scenarios of racist and religious incidents in the DVD. They provide starting points for discussion and are based on real life experiences of the young people who took part in the project.
Nazir Afzal, North West Chief Crown Prosecutor said:
"Racist and religious hate crimes hurt individuals, families and communities. They can take away a person's sense of self worth, their sense of security and belonging and often cause lasting harm.
"We remain determined to tackle hate crimes by bringing those who commit these crimes before the courts, but education is the key to changing attitudes and preventing prejudice and racist abuse happening in the first place. Teachers have a vital role in challenging this sort of behaviour and guiding young people to a greater understanding of its impact and I hope this resource pack will support them in doing so.
"The young people from our local schools who worked on this project with us have been inspirational. Their ideas, enthusiasm and willingness to share their own experiences brought the stories in the video clips to life and produced a powerful and thought provoking DVD."
John Topping, Deputy Headmaster at Bispham High School - Arts College said:
"Over recent years Bispham High School has been closely involved with the filming of a local authority led project entitled Hate Hurts. It seemed a natural development to extend our work into racist and religious hate crime and bullying.
"Lessons and assemblies help young people to be more tolerant and mindful of the needs of others on their journey to becoming better citizens of the world. I firmly believe that better citizens are better learners and so will access those higher levels of attainment.
"Over the last year Bispham High School has been close partners with the CPS and enjoyed the events where young people have accessed the new resource packs and pupils also met with the Chief Crown Prosecutor during a round table event!"
One scenario in the DVD shows a black teenager being racially abused by other players at football training. Another shows a Jewish boy being taunted in the street and later being physically assaulted. In others Chinese, Polish and Asian youngsters face racial harassment. A separate section of the DVD features young people talking about incidents of racist and religious bullying and prejudice that they have experienced and the impact it had on them. A variety of classroom activities guide discussion and about the scenes and encourage pupils to look at ways of challenging prejudiced behaviour.
The pack is designed for use with older pupils in primary schools and pupils in secondary schools. It is a free self contained resource for teachers and schools.
