My college is an urban sixth form based in Leicester with 80% BMEG students, and we have looked closely at our curriculum to see how we can educate and protect our learners about and from the increase in hate crime and the rise of the Far Right as part of the Prevent work that we do.
For the past two years, we have run assemblies and tutorials on this (see attached). The assemblies take place as part of induction and are led by our Designated Safeguarding lead and look at emerging issues, as well as what students should do if they have any worries. This is followed up a few weeks later in tutorials as part of British values and Prevent session and we display posters around the college reminding students of the issues and who to go to if they are concerned. At key points over the past two years we have also hosted the Home Office funded ‘Real Talk workshop’ which students have really enjoyed engaging with as it is an interactive session held in our open area (‘the street’) that they can take part with their friends.
This term, ITV accompanied the workshop presenters and filmed our students with the intention of using this as part of a documentary they are airing later in the year, focusing on hate crime. We were concerned about the timing of this event, as most students are busy with exams and we weren’t sure how many would be in college as it also fell during Eid. However, whilst the college was quieter than usual, the team managed to generate lots of interest and hopefully the film crew were able to get some useful footage too.
Talking to a student who took part in the ‘Real Talk workshop’, she said that she learnt a lot about extremism and especially the Far Right. There were three parts to the session, one helped explore stereotypes, the other focused on fake news and how to identify it, and the most useful part she felt, was the third session where they explored the views of the far right and compared them to their own. Previously, she had thought they were just racists, but now she understands that it goes beyond that. Sean, one of the presenters, told her that there had been a 600% increase in hate crime in the UK against Muslims since the New Zealand terror attack, and she initially challenged this thinking he was quoting a typo – so felt that this was really important for her to know.
Whilst the workshop was excellent at raising awareness and understanding amongst the students, it didn’t address how they can stay safe or what they should do if they have concerns, which is why we feel it is important to also have the assemblies, tutorials and posters so that we are regularly reminding students of how to stay safe.
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