Ayr kids say no to sectarianism

Aug 8 2008

Kids say no to sectarianism

TWO schools have joined forces to tackle sectarianism.

Primary pupils at St John’s and Newton launched a campaign to tackle the problem and send the message that it won’t be tolerated in schools.

The schools worked together with the local community in North Ayr, sharing community based projects which tackled and challenged sectarianism and issues of inequality using creative arts and drama.

This was done by celebrating positive relations, equality, diversity and inclusion within the community, and highlighting that it is alright to be different.

Councillors, church representatives, employees from the schools involved in the project, community police officers and education, culture and lifelong learning employees were amongst the guests invited by the children to the celebration.

Councillor Hywel Davies, the council’s lifelong learning spokesman, said: “This is an exciting project, it has harnessed the power of drama and art to help the pupils learn and importantly pass out a clear message that they will not tolerate any sort of sectarian attitude either in their school or in their communities.

“The valuable lessons that the pupils have learned about sectarianism will stay with them for the rest of their lives and our communities in South Ayrshire will benefit in years to come.”

Working with members of the Take Away Theatre Company, the pupils have been involved in role play scenarios to explore sectarianism issues such as bigotry, discrimination and peer pressure.

A group of pupils wrote short scenarios that demonstrated their ability to tackle anti-sectarian behaviour using a problem solving approach.

Some of these scenarios were filmed so that they can be shown to other pupils or community groups.