Last week Grimsby Town Foundation were out in our Priority Primary schools delivering Premier League Primary Stars ‘No Room For Racism’ workshops and assemblies.
The Premier League Primary Stars programme that we deliver in our partner schools aims to end racism in football and wider society.
These workshops and assemblies were designed to help pupils think about the effects of discrimination or hurtful behaviour, while providing opportunities to challenge and change attitudes, all within a real-life context.
The activities offered pupils the opportunity to use their thinking skills through guided activities which aimed to reveal pupils’ own stereotypical views in order to introduce the concepts.
Pupils also enjoyed recognising and celebrating their differences and appreciating that these differences are what makes us who we are.
Pupils at William Barcroft in years 3,4,5 and 6 were delivered an assembly by Ellie Kirk, our Primary School Delivery Manager, supported by Libby Durkin, our Sports and Education Coach currently working with the pupils on a weekly basis.
Mrs Sargent, the head of William Barcroft welcomed the delivery of the assemblies saying, “This is a great opportunity to engage the pupils in a hugely important topic. Pupils were enthusiastic and were excellent at recognising all of the differences between them and their peers.
“Pupils also recognised the need for communicating any experiences of discrimination and knew who to go to if needing to report anything that happens inside and outside of school.”
The Sports and Education coaches also delivered a full day of assemblies and workshops at Macaulay Primary Academy. Mr Herrick, the head at Macaulay, chose to have a real focus upon stereotyping, using assemblies with the lower Key Stage 2 pupils and workshops for upper Key Stage 2.
Pupils again were given opportunities to understand the definition of stereotyping and explore discussions around negative and positive stereotyping that may occur subconsciously.
The use of videos showing the experiences of Premier League footballers and Womens Super League players was a great way to engage and capture the attention of the pupils.
One pupil shared their thoughts after viewing the experiences of Tyler Roberts and Jess Carter that and said, “This makes me feel sad that people get treated differently just because of the colour of their skin’. Showing empathy and an understanding that this behaviour is not acceptable in our society.
The final stop of the week for our coaches was St Mary’s Catholic school in Grimsby. Pupils in years 3,4,5 and 6 all had a No Room For Racism workshop.
Both Macaulay and St Mary’s were also given further support via Grimsby Town Football Club who were promoting the EFL’s ‘Together Against Racism’ campaign. This enabled us to work collaboratively and get first team players into schools speaking with pupils and supporting in their workshops.
Doug Tharme spoke about the work we are doing at the Foundation and said, “Even though these are school-aged pupils, they understand what is going on, and this is down to the education that they have had previously on the topic and what is happening here today.”
Evan Khouri attended the sessions at St Mary’s and was also impressed with the conversations taking place in the classrooms, adding “Blundell Park is a place where we want everyone to feel welcome. It’s a safe space for everyone in the community, no matter what your race or ethnicity.”
Classes that we worked with last week have been asked to create their own No Room For Racism Pledges, a way to keep the positive messages at the forefront of pupils minds, ensuring that discrimination is never acceptable and what to do if someone is needing support.
As a celebration of all the hard work pupils have done this week in their workshops and assemblies, Grimsby Town Football club ensured that the Foundation could give each pupil a voucher to the next home game on Saturday 26th October against MK Dons.
We look forward to having you here at Blundell park!
If you would like to find out more about the work that we do in schools, or wish to discuss the Priority School Partnership that we can offer, contact our Primary School Delivery Manager, Ellie Kirk via email ellie@grimsbytownfounation.co.uk or call on 01472 696481.
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