More than a third of Scottish children taking part in a recent poll said they had experienced racism. The poll by Show Racism the Red Card (SRRC), which has been delivering a programme of anti-racism education in upper primary, showed 37 per cent of the 451 participating children had experienced racism. Nicola Hay, SRRC campaign manager, said some of the experiences had likely come as a result of Brexit “almost legitimising racist and xenophobic views”.
Primary parents have backed a campaign for Scotland’s only state-funded single sex secondary school to admit boys. A poll of families from the co-educational Notre Dame Primary School, in the west end of Glasgow, saw 220 families (86 per cent) support calls for a statutory consultation on changing the status of the girls-only Notre Dame High School. But there is still a strong interest in preserving its status from other groups, including Muslim parents.
Research by East Ayrshire pupils has fed into a local history book. From Railway Line to the Front Line tells the real-life stories of railway workers who served in the First World War. Pupils from both primary and secondary schools were involved in the project, which was backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Primary children at Glasgow’s Kelvinside Academy have run their own university research project. The pupils worked with Dr Niamh Stack, a senior lecturer in University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology, to investigate issues important to them, including Brexit and the effects of testing. Junior school head Andrew Dickenson said it was important as children usually thought of research as simply visiting websites.