Sense over Sectarianism

Most of us have seen how sectarianism can affect a community or perhaps individual members within a family. We may even have personal experience of it at school or hear the chanting at football matches. From around the world today we are used to seeing images appear in the newspapers and on television showing conflict and war, religious intolerance at its extreme.

Where would you start to try and change the attitudes of those who discriminate and are intolerant of other religions? The P7 pupils from two neighbouring primary schools, St Mark’s RC and Springhill, in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire decided to take the challenge to their own community.

Working together on an Enterprise Education project they investigated different areas where sectarianism is visible in their own community, such as churches, football clubs and schools. They looked for ways in which people could be brought together, using these differences, to foster unity rather than preserving traditional divisions.  

With the support of the Sense over Sectarianism initiative, funding was secured from the Millennium Commission – the first time pupils under 16 years of age had been awarded funding. 

The next step was to set up a Board, with pupils from both schools holding the main posts. Two local secondary schools (St Luke’s and Barrhead High Schools) were contacted and an S6 pupil from each school happily offered their services as a volunteer mentor. Senior staff were also available to offer support. 

The objective of the enterprise project was quickly set; rather than producing products to sell for profit their aim was to provide a service to their community to help reduce sectarianism.   Three main projects were identified:

•            The organisation of a Festival of Unity, to bring together a variety of denominations and secular groups within the community. 

•            The production of a musical drama   - 'Tomorrow's Children'.

•            To design and produce give-away information leaflets and bookmarks.

A great deal of hard work was undertaken by the pupils to research this sensitive and difficult subject in their determination to make the project a success. 

The 'Nil-by-mouth' group, led by Helen Miller, set the project in motion with a seminar to increase the participants’ understanding of anti-sectarianism. This was also an opportunity for the children to meet and get to know each other.

PACE Theatre Group guided pupils through the rehearsals and production process for their staging of the musical drama 'Tomorrow's Children' which has anti-sectarianism as its central theme.

The pupils were keen to understand the impact of religious division in our history, to learn about different religions and discover the effects of cultural and religious intolerance in the distant and recent past.

Visits were organised to St Mungo's Museum of Religion to find out about Glasgow's own religious history, and to the East Renfrewshire Holocaust Memorial Exhibition to see for themselves how anti-semitism directed the treatment of Jews in World War II. 

A trip to the McLellan Galleries in Glasgow provided a wealth of ideas for the designs of their leaflet and bookmark and after-school art classes brought pupils from both schools together to produce artwork for display at the Festival of Unity.

A key element in the project's success was that all activities involved groups from both schools travelling and working together to gather information. Media coverage in the local press and BBC online provided additional momentum as well as boosting the pupils' enthusiasm and motivation to succeed.

The culmination of many months of effort was the Festival of Unity held in the local Sports Centre and attended by members of local organisations, community leaders, pupils and parents. A hugely successful production of 'Tomorrow's Children' was the centrepiece of the event. The pupils’ artwork was on display and visitors were given copies of the information leaflet and bookmarks.

The project offered an opportunity for the pupils to develop skills which complement a variety of topics within the school curriculum: English language; religious and moral education; personal and social development; inclusion and equality; values and citizenship; learning for life and expressive arts. A range of valuable business skills also was learned along the way. 

In a wider context, many positive benefits have come out of the project's success not just for the pupils and schools involved. An increased sense of unity and cooperative spirit is how community members, parents, and supporting organisations described their feelings about what has been gained. Feedback from parents reveals a view that the pupils’ work will have a lasting effect on the community.

As a much deserved bonus, the project produced a Gold Award in the Schools Enterprise Programme – a fitting reward for the excellent efforts of all those involved.

Sectarianism is a major issue and the pupils' initiative in tackling such a controversial and complex subject is to be much applauded. They beat the politicians in bringing the problem to the podium, pre-empting an initiative by Scottish Executive to educate school children about 'the harmful effect of sectarianism and religious intolerance in a bid to stamp out bigotry in Scotland'. The enthusiasm and momentum that the Barrhead project has created shows a clear direction that we can draw on and build on for the future, not just locally but nationally.

A number of pupils from the two schools have made lasting friendships through the work of the project - a welcome indication that the united and harmonious society most of us would like may yet be possible if these issues are challenged by pupils in their formative years.

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