Young People Bring Peace to School

On Wednesday 21^st July, young people from Priesthorpe High School who said ‘no’ to racism are taking over the school for a day.

The young people took part in an educational programme run by The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace to combat racism and conflict in their school and community. The result is that they will be running an enrichment day for years 7, 8 and 9 school to pass on their learning to their peers.

The day will see students delivering workshops covering themes from conflict, to games highlighting prejudice and discrimination. The activities have been planned and will be delivered by the students with support from the Foundation and a committed staff team at Priesthorpe School. It aims to increase awareness of cultural, religious and ethnic differences to aid the building of positive relationships.

The Foundation has been working with students and staff at the school for two years to help build relationships within the school community.

Priesthorpe is a community Specialist Sports College situated in LS28 close to the boundary between Leeds and Bradford. Most of the students come from Farsley, Stanningley, Pudsey and Calverley, with a further 20% from Bradford.

The Foundation has delivered its Leadership Development programme to 75 young people. Programme content included a focus on religion; conflict transformation and extreme behaviour. This particular group explored ‘extreme behaviour’ producing short presentations for their peers on how people are recruited into extreme groups; those who take the lead in such groups; and the structures of such organisations. There was a focus on groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to local ‘gangs’ and groups from Bradford/Leeds border. The group looked at how involvement in extreme groups can happen very quickly and simply without people being aware of the consequences. 

The aim of the programme is to reduce conflict and racial abuse and provide pupils with peer mentoring and leadership skills.

Speaking about the programme, Ken Hall, Head teacher, said: “This is one of the most inspiring projects that I have ever been involved with.  It has been of immense value to our young people and to the school generally.  It has helped develop the leadership skills of our young people to take our message out into local communities and to be a positive force in supporting understanding, trust and cohesion.”

Speaking about the programme, Programme Manager, Kelly Simcock, said: “The Foundation’s programme graduates have recognised that their peers need to be enthused about peace like they were. Therefore, they have carefully selected the workshops to ensure that they challenge the students and allow them to explore themes and topics that they wouldn’t normally talk about.”

Chief Executive, Clare White, said: “This has been a fantastic programme. The reason it has been so successful is due to the dedication of the team at Priesthorpe High School and the enthusiasm with which the young people embraced the activities. Although it was quite challenging and hard going at times the young people kept with it and have proved to everyone that they do have the potential to change things for the better within their own school community.”