Dublin 15 school wins top award in anti-racism competition

A PRIMARY school class that counts 11 different nationalities among its pupils has been presented with an award for its outstanding work on tackling racism.

The class from Castaheany Educate Together National School in Dublin 15 accepted the

‘overall winners’ award in the annual creative competition run by the Show Racism the Red Card charity.

The competition calls for young people to develop creative messages about racism and integration using written, visual and audiovisual means.

It is open to primary schools, secondary schools and youth groups and, this year, received over 200 entries.

The project the Castaheany class submitted to the competition was a video depicting the fifth-class pupils developing anti-racism artwork for display around their school.

The soundtrack to the video is the pupils’ own version of the hit track

‘Let It Go’ by Demi Lovato, with the lyrics re-written to promote an anti-racism message.

To ensure their message reached as wide an audience as possible, the pupils uploaded their video to YouTube, where it has received over 1,200 views.

Garrett Mullan, the coordinator of Show Racism the Red Card, said:

“Castaheany Educate Together National School is typical of schools in many parts of Ireland that, like Dublin 15, experienced high levels of migration in recent decades.

“The class that won our competition includes pupils whose families originally come from Slovakia, Poland, Nigeria, Romania, Albania, Serbia, India and Pakistan, as well as Ireland.

“Because the school has such a multicultural student body, the teachers are highly conscious of the importance of educating pupils about racism and equipping them with the skills to challenge racism in every-day life.

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He added:

“Importantly, the school is also committed to spreading the anti-racism message outside of the school-gates. What really impressed our judging panel about this particular entry was the emphasis it placed on

‘going viral’ and spreading a positive message through social media.

“If we can cultivate an awareness of racism amongst young people and give them advice on how best to tackle it, we will go a long way towards ensuring Ireland becomes a happily multicultural and well integrated society in future years.

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