Pupils, parents and staff at a Southside school are hoping their ground-breaking new project will inspire people across the city and beyond to speak up against racism.
Children and their families, alongside teachers and support for learning workers at St Albert’s Primary in Pollokshields, have formed an anti-racism group to encourage everyone to “take a stand”.
Norah Sylvester, 12, who is in primary seven, explains that the group meets regularly to discuss how to help the school and community deal with racism.
She says: “Everyone sees it differently. I have grown up with racism my whole life and I see it as not really a question of being racist or non-racist because just saying you are not a racist is not helping the problem.
“It is not enough to be non-racist, you have to be anti-racist.”
Norah adds: “Anti-racist means taking a stand and doing something about it.”
St Albert’s Primary is currently creating a series of workshops the pupils hope to take “on the road” around other Glasgow schools and beyond.
“At the moment the anti-racism group is made up of pupils, parents, teachers and support for learning workers, but we hope to widen its reach to include community stakeholders,” says class teacher Alexis Pattie.
“This is very much led by the children and parents, who want to show people what they have done, and how others can become an ally in being actively anti-racist. It’s all about allyship.”
Headteacher Clare Harker adds: “The problem with the current ‘debate’ is that our community’s voices are still not being heard.
“All the noise is being made by others, people who look like me. We want to empower the children and the community so their voices are heard too.”
St Albert's Primary was targeted by racists in 2022 after then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon posted pictures of her visit online. The incidents were reported to police and the story gained national coverage.
The school, which is a previous winner of the Lord Provost's Special Recognition trophy at the Glasgow Times Community Champion Awards, has been praised for its groundbreaking work on inclusion, including publishing a play and a series of short stories called We Can Be Heroes, written by the children when they discovered of all the books in their library, fewer than five percent featured diverse characters, protagonists or heroes.
Norah’s mum Mel says the group is an important initiative.
“Norah is very supportive of her peers, she is very outspoken on issues she feels strongly about, and equality is one of those issues,” she says.
“We are Caribbean-born, we moved to Glasgow from Trinidad in 2024, and settling in had its ups and downs.”
Mel, who has two more daughters, Layla 13 and Kenna, eight, adds: “Not everyone is as open to difference as we are. St Albert’s has been amazing, the teachers here understand what the children need and are very supportive.”
In the playground at St Albert’s, some of the pupils involved in the anti-racism group explain why the work they are doing is important.
Ibrahim, 12, says: “We are trying to teach people about racism, and about supporting people whoever they are. It is not just about skin colour, it is about race, culture, gender, a lot of things.”
Hadeel, 11, agrees. “We have a suggestion box so people can write down things they want to talk about at the meetings, so everyone can be heard,” he says.
“Some people are afraid to talk about it. But we can all talk about it at the meetings.”
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Amaan, 11, says: “I feel proud we are doing this, I think other schools should do the same. I am worried for people. I am worried about people who have had racist attacks and I am also worried about the people who are being racist because they might not understand why it is so bad.
“I think our group will help to change things.”
Finn, 10, says: “We have to try and stop racism because it has been happening for too long.”
Ayesha, 10, adds: “Even if a person has a different skin colour from yours, they should still have the same rights as you,” she says.
“No one deserves people to be racist to them, they haven’t done anything wrong so it doesn’t make sense.”
She adds: “We are making a website with videos, to show how people can stop being racist. We wrote books, which were great, but the website could be seen by lots more people.
“I hope the whole world will look at it.”
