Our daily message today concentrates on home learning, and in particular Living and Learning. It’s an important one this week, so do please spend some time at home on this.
Living and Learning is our term for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Each week in school, we have a Living and Learning statement and we’ve started to tell you about this so that you have an opportunity to include this in your home learning activities, whether as an additional or an alternative task.
This week’s Living and Learning statement is ‘I see things from other people’s point of view’. Like the previous week, this statement links with the British value of mutual respect and tolerance. It promotes empathy and understanding; it’s about encouraging children to consider what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others.
In light of recent events in America and subsequent protests across the world, please do make sure you fit some time into your week to discuss this with your child.
One of a series of ‘I Don’t Get It’ short films from First News (in partnership with Sky and the British Film Institute) asks why racism is still a big issue in our world. It’s not perfect (it fails to mention the role of Britain in the slave trade, for example), but might act as a good starting point.
Empathy Lab is a good base to keep returning to in order to promote empathy and understanding and therefore ultimately stop prejudicial behaviour. Their aim is ‘to inspire the rising generation to drive a new empathy movement… to build children’s empathy, literacy and social activism through a systematic use of high quality literature.’ Tomorrow happens to be Empathy Day.
For older children, this resource sheet with questions and prompts for discussion linked to this poster would be a good starting point.
Also worth looking at would be this experience of an American author, which asks the question what can this account teach us about the effects of racism on his daily life?
We really thinking stories are a really powerful way to break down barriers, whatever the barrier. Possibly more suited to younger children are these two stories read aloud by their author:
And here are three lists of books for all ages – they all feature themes of racism:
- The Guardian: ‘No reader is too young to start’: anti-racist books for all children and teens’
- The Daily Express: ‘Children’s books about race: The best books to teach your children about race’
- Quarto Knows: ‘Anti-racist books for kids’