Dear children,

I am sure that many of you over the past few weeks (and months and years) have been disgusted and shocked by the treatment of black people. This weekend has seen many protests against racism with famous persons using their voice to rally the community and bring together hope on this issue. See Anthony Joshua below for his explanation:

Racism is not a new issue, it is something that has been entrenched for generations in our society. This might be streets named after a slave owner in Bristol, someone told they are ugly because of their skin colour or my friend being told her English was ‘good for a black person’. I can only begin to imagine how hurtful this is to people and equally how unnecessary it is.

You might be thinking – I don’t like racism, what can I do to stop it? I have asked myself the same question. My duty as a teacher is to educate children. This education comes in the form of learning how to be actively anti-racist. This is how you can stop racism: educate yourself and educate others around you.

If we were in school, we would have delved into this and had many a class discussion. It is important to constantly question the world around us and reflect on our own belief systems. In today’s current world, we will do this using our class page and reflecting on work from around the world.

Answer these questions:

• Why does the man write in this way?
• What part of the text is uncomfortable to read? Why?
• What part of the text fills you with hope?
• Create a paragraph giving advice to people who see the man walking with his child and his dog. What do they need to know? How can they stop their ways of judging people?

Please send me your work as I would love to see your thoughts on this.

Sending you all my best wishes in these difficult times.

Ms Lankester