CARING children are lending the shirts off their backs to bring global messages of empathy home to their local community.
Pupils from Reid Street Primary School, Darlington, are producing their own tee-shirt designs mimicking those produced by Show Racism the Red Card following the racial backlash after England lost the penalty shootout at Euro 2021.
The school won one of just two special ‘Fabric of England’ t-shirts produced to counter racism following the racial slurs on England players.
Pupils have been designing their own ‘Fabric of Reid Street’ t-shirts based on the theme of ‘home’ containing a flag of their choice and images that conjure homelife.
The designs will be imposed on individual paper doll images of the 400 pupils which will be strung together for the school.
A patchwork t-shirt will also be made reflecting the 24 different nationalities at the school, a two-time winner of the Global Empathy Award, which is one of the most diverse in the town because of its close proximity to Darlington Memorial Hospital where many overseas workers are employed.
Principal Paula Ayto said: “The children have been doing a lot of work around Empathy Week and are entering the global competition for the fourth time, winning in 2021 and 2023.
“This project touches upon many of the values we try to promote in school and addresses how to help young people realise they can make a difference in the world despite being little.”
As well as exploring what home means to them they have explored the real life story of two homeless children, creating a variety of artwork to decorate the house they have finally managed to secure.
Pupils have also been collecting crisp packets that will be transformed into foil blankets for the homeless and have been taking part in ‘Mother Tongue Other Tongue’ events where they share their language and learn a new one, from Swahili to Polish, and also Makaton sign language.
Children have even looked at the homes of animals through activities including film-making and visits to farms.
The project highlighted the close associations with home and food so the school’s catering providers, Chartwells, ran a series of workshops about meals from around the world and the community was invited in to take part in sweet treat tastings, as well as enjoy singing, dancing, poetry and to sew home themed bunting.
Reid Street pupils collected the prestigious Global Empathy Award in 2022 and 2023 beating countless schools from around the world and are hoping for a hattrick this year.
Founded by eminent UK educationalist Ed Kirwan the award-winning global schools programme attracts interest from a million students, aged 5-18, from more than 40 countries.
Mrs Ayto said: “Empathy comes from understanding and fear from ignorance so we see it as our job to help create young people who are going to be the good citizens of the future.”
