2020 Newsletters

March 2020

Communities United Event

The very successful Sense over Sectarianism Communities United programme involves 2 or more schools working together in each other's establishments to complete joint workshops from the SOS Primary School Workshop resource.

This partnership arrangement is normally between closely located denomination and non-denominational schools but when no local twinning is possible schools are twinned from different communities.

A feature of the programme is joint sporting events where at the end of the series of workshops the young people come together in a local sports facility to take part in a variety of fun activities. These activities include fun games, relay races, football, netball and rugby. The sports are delivered in partnership between SOS staff and sports coaches from North Kelvin Sports.

The sports event on 12^th March however took on an even grander scale than normal. In total 198 active Primary 7 pupils, from a total of 8 classes from 5 different primary schools from across Glasgow took part in the event. Initially the classes were twinned with the schools they had been working with in the workshops but for the last hour all 8 classes mixed together as they were given a choice of sports to participate in.

A great morning of team building and fun took place and the feedback from children and school staff alike was extremely positive.

More details including photos from the evet can be viewed on the SOS twitter feed @sos_glasgow

For more information about this event or any other SOS initiative please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk 

February 2020

National Month of Action

In February Sense over Sectarianism (SOS) held a "National Month of Action" for only the second time for schools across Scotland. Working in partnership with Action on Sectarianism the SOS National Month of Action featured a variety of activities across the month of February and indeed the run up too.

There were 2 key elements to the month of action. The national Tackling Sectarianism schools art competition attracted interest and entries from across the country and a Secondary School tour of "Scarfed for Life" provided 10 performances in schools across west central Scotland.

The winners of the national awards who each received £250 for their schools were as follows:-

Art Display Competition

Pupils were invited to make art about the topic of sectarianism/tackling sectarianism.

Primary Award winner was Dalry Primary School (for the second year in a row) in North Ayrshire

Secondary Schools Award winner was Govan High School in Glasgow

School Project Competition

Submissions were to consist of a 2 minute YouTube video which was about tackling sectarianism.

The Award winner was St Roch's Primary School in Glasgow

These three competition winners and the entries of the finalists can be found on the Sense over Sectarianism twitter account @sos_glasgow

Scarfed for Life Tour

The Citizens Theatre young company performed 2 shows a day for 5 days to an average audience of 80-90 secondary students as a means of reinforcing the study of the play in school or as an introduction to the play before reading the text.

At the opening performance at St Paul's HS in Pollock, Glasgow the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice Humza Yousaf addressed the pupils after watching the performance to express his support for the work of SOS and its partners.

The feedback from students and teachers alike was incredibly positive and included a really positive exercise for the cast who were comprised by members of the young company of the Citizens Theatre.

For more information about this event or any other SOS initiative please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk

January 2020

Holocaust Memorial Event

Every January Sense over Sectarianism organise and deliver the Glasgow Schools Holocaust memorial event in the Banqueting Hall of Glasgow City Chambers. This year is no different and the event will take place on Thursday 30^th January from 10am - 12 Noon.

This year's event will have even more poignancy as it is the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau.

The invited audience will consist or around 400 people including primary and secondary school children and staff, representatives from Interfaith Scotland, Local Elected Members and Senior Education staff.

This year the event will be hosted by two S6 pupils from Kings Park Secondary and the audience will witness a drama performance by Lourdes Secondary and listen to music and songs from the Glasgow Schools String Ensemble and the Junior Holyrood Secondary school choir.

The audience will also hear readings about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides by young people from St Roch's Hearing Impairment Secondary School and Merrylee Primary School.

The headline of the programme however involve two very special guest speakers. Janine Webber is a Holocaust survivor and he will recount her story which is sure to be of great interest. The second headline speaker is Hasan Hasanovic a Bosnian survivor from the genocide attacks on his community in the former Yugoslavia.

The event will surely be one to remember and have a deep and meaningful impact on everyone involved.

For more information about this event or any other SOS initiative please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk