Over the coming months, pupils across Glasgow will be making banners expressing a welcome to refugees for Refugee Week Scotland 2014
Refugee Week Scotland 2014 is getting closer and we have been very busy arranging activities, which will allow schools to get involved in our festival. Our schools activities will focus on this year’s theme of Welcome and we are keen for school children of all ages to explore this theme through many different artistic mediums.
Welcome banner workshops
Thanks to support from Glasgow City Councils English as an Additional Language Service we are able to run a series of banner making workshops with Primary 6 and 7 pupils in the Glasgow area.
These workshops will start on Monday and will be facilitated by visual artists Jan Nimmo and Paria Goodarzi and give pupils an introduction to banner making. Pupils will be encouraged to explore the question ‘how would you make refugees feel welcome?’
The schools will be given all the resources needed and each completed banner will be entered into a competition, with all competing schools being invited to a prize giving event during Refugee Week Scotland.
Training for teachers
In addition to the workshops, we are holding a training session for teachers to help them feel more confident and comfortable when exploring issues around refugees and asylum seekers with their pupils.
The session will give teachers a brief introduction to asylum issues and our hope is to develop a long term resource for schools which can be used to inform discussions on the subject in the future.
Overwhelming response
We have been overwhelmed by the response to this project and we are only sorry that we will not be able to work with all of the schools that noted their interest.
We are very excited to start planning more projects with schools and hope that the level of interest will continue and that we are able to build lasting relationships with schools locally and across Scotland.
Simple Acts of Welcome
Simple Acts is a national campaign to inspire people through using small everyday actions to change our perceptions on refugees and asylum seekers. Every year we encourage pupils to undertake ‘Simple Acts’ to make refugees feel more welcome in their school and community.
This year, we’ll be offering a resource pack available on our website and through GLOW, with simple actions to do with your class including ‘learn to say ‘welcome’ and a few other words in another language’; take a picture of you and your welcome banner’; watch a movie about refugee experiences; ‘cook a dish from another country’; and ‘tell a child a story from another country’.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our schools work or to be kept in the loop about future opportunities for pupils please contact arts@scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk.
