Pupils from two Cambuslang schools have came together with a leading charity and college students to encourage their community to ‘Leave Bigotry at the Door.’
Primary six children from Cairns and St Cadoc’s Primaries participated in a special afternoon event with Nil by Mouth which focused on how stereotypes are created and can be successfully challenged.
The charity teamed up with Advertising students Susan Kelly, Monica Amendola, Eilidh Scott and Lucy McCauley from City of Glasgow College who devised the event to help children use their photographic skills to create images celebrating community. As part of the event the students held ‘mini-workshops’ for pupils showing them how to create positive messages promoting friendship between the schools.
This is the latest project between the two neighbouring schools to help pupils think about prejudice and discrimination. Over the past decade they have worked on a number of musical, sporting and cultural activities including trips to Hampden Park, recording a CD and forming a community choir to perform across South Lanarkshire. Their work has been praised at Holyrood and, last year was showcased on Sky Sports News as an example of how sport could be used to break down barriers between people.
Nil by Mouth Director Dave Scott said: ‘Work challenging stereotypes and promoting community at Cairns and St Cadoc’s has been going on for over a decade and is viewed across the country as best practice in schools. It’s always a pleasure to visit them both as staff and pupils have strong and positive relationships and see different faiths and cultures being discussed and celebrated rather than used as a way of putting up barriers between children. The students have come up with a clever concept that encourages pupils to create their own photos and images celebrating community. These are two schools where bigotry really is left at the door. We hope others will sign up to this free programme during 2020.’ City of Glasgow College student Susan Kelly said: ‘We came up with this idea as part of a marketing competition last year and are delighted that the schools and Nil by Mouth see the potential in our message. It was great to hear the pupils discuss and dissect stereotypes in the workshops and then see all the wonderful images they created together to reinforce the message that their community is bigger, better and bolder than bigotry.’