2019 Newsletters

October 2019

Hate Crime Art Competition

Two schools have won the first ever hate crime art competition.

St Albert's Primary and Springburn Academy were picked from hundreds of entries received from schools across the city.

The competition was introduced this year as part of the city's annual Hate Crime Awareness Week (HCAW) which starts today (7-13 October).

Young people were asked to submit entries representing what hate crime means to them.

St Albert's winning entry was made by P5 pupil Musab Waheed.  

Musab said: "We couldn't believe it when we got told our school won the primary award and I was even more surprised to find out it was my drawing the judges picked as the winner. I'm really, really pleased."

It was a team effort from the young people at Springburn Academy.

Linda Hamilton, Headteacher at Springburn Academy, said: "Celebrating and understanding equality is at the heart of our school ethos. The young people really enjoyed working on this project. It's a challenging topic and the final submission is a team effort. I'm absolutely delighted for everyone involved."

St Albert's PS and Springburn Academy will each receive a £250 prize.  Their winning artwork, alongside a selection of entries, will be on display in the main reception area of the City Chambers throughout HCAW week.

Cllr Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills and Early Years, praised the pupils for their participation

He said: "The competition has been a fantastic opportunity to engage with school children of all ages and their participation in the first ever competition has been fantastic.

"We had such a good response from schools and the level of creativity shown in the entries was very impressive - it was not easy picking the two winners. I'm delighted the public, and visitors, to the City Chambers during Hate Crime Awareness Week will have the opportunity to see the selection of entries on display."

There are lots of pictures of the entries available to view on the SOS Twitter account @SOS_Glasgow

For more information about these type of events or any other SOS resources please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk

July 2019

Summer Camp

Once again during the "Summer" month of July Sense over Sectarianism worked in partnership with North Kelvin Sports to deliver an action packed 4 week long Summer Camp for Primary School age children in the North West of Glasgow.

The excellent facilities at Garscube Sports Complex allowed the delivery of a variety of Football activities in all weather and a daily workshop at lunchtime led by either SOS Development Officer Mark Adams, Bridges & Barriers Project Coordinator Andrew Westcott or Scott Craig who is both a North Kelvin coach and SOS Schools Officer.

A wide social mix of young people from 5 to 12 years old, from different schools and different areas of the city, from a host of ethnic groups and religions attended the camp over the 4 week period, giving the camp great diversity.

An average of over 40 players a day took part in a range of football related games and challenges including camp favourites, "Lightening", Kings & Queens" and the "Crossbar Challenge".

The daily workshops covered a multitude of discussions. These included debates about different forms of prejudice and discrimination, also around acceptable behaviour playing and attending football matches and lots about the history of football in Scotland and why stereotypes still exist in the Scottish game. To name but a few.

There are lots of pictures of the camp available to view on the SOS Twitter account @SOS_Glasgow.

For more information about these type of events or any other SOS resources please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk 

June 2019

Kilmarnock Event

On the 6^th June Sense over Sectarianism worked in partnership with New Farm Loch Community Council, Youthlink Scotland, Kilmarnock FC and Rangers FC to deliver a multi school tackling sectarianism workshop event.

In total, over 100 teenagers from 5 schools in and around Kilmarnock attended the event which was hosted by the Kilmarnock FC's Park Hotel.

The event kicked off around 9.30 and comprised of 4 workshop areas where the young people (mixed into separate groups) experienced every workshop in a carousel format.

Sense over Sectarianism explored the young people's likes and dislikes about their community and then came up with plans to combat sectarianism in ther own community. The Rangers FC boys, Keiran and Ralph, explained the history of the Old Firm clubs and then asked the young people to come up with ideas about what football clubs could do to reduce sectarian behaviour around matches.

Sarah from Youthlink, assisted by 2 excellent senior school volunteers, delivered the new Hate Crime pack "Speak Up" and Kilmarnock FC were represented by Team Corrymeela a group of 5 teenage girls who delivered an excellent workshop defining prejudice and discrimination in ways relevant to young people.

Local Community Police and Campus Cops together with schools staff further assisted the workshops to make the day a huge success. A real example of a multi-agency approach to Tackling Sectarianism.

May 2019

St Francis of Assisi Primary School

Sense over Sectarianism, has been working in partnership with St Francis of Assisi Primary School in the east end of Glasgow for a number of years.

This academic year the school has been leading a number of initiatives to combat serious issues such as sectarianism. These initiatives include classroom study, a school assembly, school trips, workshops and fundraising. The quotes below were provided by P7 teacher Aileen Cameron.

Whole School Assembly

'Our assembly is a presentation scripted and presented by the children to inform others, mainly family and friends, about the Divided City book and the journey the have made in investigating the issues raised. They will talk about prejudice, discrimination and sectarianism as well as asylum seekers/refugees.'

Workshops and School Trips

'We learned a lot from yourself and Scott but we wanted to explore the subject further so with the grant we received from you kind selves we arranged a trip to the St Mungo's Museum to learn more about sectarianism and we had a tour of the places mentioned in the book on the city bus tour. We also asked the Refugee Survival Trust to come in and speak to us about asylum seekers/refugees. Mahdi and Fatemeh came in and told us about the work of their charity as well as their personal stories, allowing the children to ask questions about the issues raised.'

Fundraising

'We are having a Rainbow Run tomorrow morning to raise funds for the RST charity, which we will present to Mahdi at the assembly (he doesn't know about this) as a way of paying it forward.'

Excellent work from all involved who are taking their responsibility for change very seriously.

For more information about these resource or any other SOS resources please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk

April 2019

Mentors in Violence Prevention

Sense over Sectarianism, as part for the wider Social Inclusion remit, deliver the Education Scotland Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme on behalf of Glasgow City Council. The MVP programme operates in 25 of the 32 Scottish Local Authorities and in delivered through the peer mentoring model in over 50% of Glasgow's 30 Secondary Schools.

In April SOS hosted and facilitated a two day training programme to provide the information and professional learning materials to enable schools to launch, or indeed, relaunch, the programme at Castlemilk High School, Kings Park Secondary, Holyrood Secondary and Shawlands Academy.

In addition Glasgow "Campus Cops" who have recently been appointed to schools who operate the MVP programme were offered the chance to participate through the GCC Education Services partnership with Police Scotland Community Safety.

This training package was the culmination of a programme of training across February to April 2019. A series of Awareness Raising training days having been delivered to existing participating schools for new staff who had volunteered to get involved in the MVP programme.

More information about the MVP programme can be found on the MVP website. 

For more information about these resource or any other SOS resources please contact mark.adams@glasgow.gov.uk.

February 2019

National Month of Action

In February Sense over Sectarianism (SOS) held the first ever "National Month of Action" for Schools across Scotland. Working in partnership with Action on Sectarianism SOS featured as the Tackling Sectarianism project for the month of February.

There were 2 key elements to the month of action. The first ever national tackling Sectarianism schools 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 in North Ayrshire

Secondary Schools Award winner was Ross Hall Academy in Glasgow

School Project Competition

Submissions to include a 2 minute YouTube video with a 300-400 word overview.

Primary Award winner was St Thomas's Primary School in Glasgow

Secondary Schools Award winner was Kirkintilloch High School in East Dunbartonshire

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.

The feedback from students and teachers alike was incredibly positive and there is definitely scope to repeat the experience so that other schools can get involved.

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

January 2019

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 Tuesday 29 January from 10am - 12 Noon.

The invited audience will consist of 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 S5 pupils from Holyrood 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 newly formed St Bride's school choir.

The audience will also hear readings about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides by young people from Whitehill Secondary School and Merrylee Primary School.

The headline of the programme however involve two very special guest speakers. Martin Stern is a Dutch born Holocaust survivor and he will recount his story which is sure to be of great interest. The second headline speaker is Farida Abbas a young Yazidi survivor from the ISIS attacks on her community in Iraq.

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.