In Year Five today, we have had some visitors to look in depth at the issue of racism. We watched a video about people who have experienced racism, footballers in particular, and how it affected them. This was to see how times and attitudes towards differences have changed over the years.

Our discussion included looking at images of people and trying to make judgements about them as a person, such as their name, gender, religion and birthplace. We judged information based on where it comes from and how information can be changed from person to person.

This was shown in a game of “Whispers” where the statement  “My friend Elvis drives a big purple van” turned into “my mouth cookie cookie”, highlighting the problem with gossip, and not to take information seriously without knowing about the provider’s ‘world view’.

To look at our own opinions, and whether they were true or false, we were asked questions such as ‘Is it racist to call someone because of the colour of their hair?’ and ‘Is racism is a new problem?’

We completed a game called ‘Racist or Not Racist’, where we had to decide if a statement was racist or not, to look at common situation or problems and deem whether or not they are racist situations.

We now know about the problem of racism and are beginning to understand the steps we need to take if unsure about a situation, and be able to decide whether or not it is racist.