The colourful banners that contain a very important message are displayed.
A special celebration was held in Newton Primary School to acknowledge work carried out by their pupils and those of St John’s Primary School who, through a drama and art project, have been working in partnership to tackle sectarianism.
St John’s Primary and Newton Primary Schools are challenging the inappropriate behaviour of some people by sending out a clear message that sectarianism is not acceptable in our communities.
Earlier this year the pupils worked with the Take Away Theatre Company to study sectarianism, to learn why it will not be tolerated in schools and how it could be tackled in their local community.
The schools have 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.
Local 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.
Also present was Councillor Hywel Davies, the Council’s Portfolio Carrier for Lifelong Learning, he 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 have been filmed so that they can be shown to other pupils or community groups.
Using digital cameras other pupils captured images that they thought reflected their project and these have been turned into banners that will be hung in their respective schools. The banners are a symbol of their commitment to abolish sectarianism in their community and they were officially handed over to the schools by Councillor Hywel Davies.