from pupils

Year 4 (Tarleton and St. Matthew's Link)

'We are all unique. For example, I am the only one in my class who wears glasses'.

'If you are mixing with different people you will be able to mix with everyone. It helps you make friends'.

'When we watched the footballers, the footballers got upset when people shouted things, so when we went to St Matthews if someone was going to shout we would know not to join in'.

'We are not to be racist as it is not nice.'

'If your friends started laughing and pointing it teaches you not to join in. Because it could be the other way round' .

'We can teach each other'.

'Other religions can live life together.'

Year 7 (Rhyddings and Ivy Bank Link)

'There are no Asian people in our class so it was nice to see their point of view'.

'The topics were good 'cos a lot of racism goes on. I know more about why there are different races in England. It gives you a better understanding'.

'It challenged me 'cos I hadn't had to think about things so much before. I learnt about different points of view and thought about different things'.

'My attitude changed because I saw black people who were really nice. Sometimes you think they're not but I learnt that that's not all of them. I'm still in touch with some of the people from the other school. We've become friends and chat on MSN'.

'I feel that there's no difference between colour of skin. It's what's inside that's different'.

'In normal lessons I don't think as hard as I did then. I started speaking more. I got to know more about everything and took it all in, like about racism and asylum seekers'.

What do you think you learnt?

'To take in more of other people's opinions. To listen to others. To share different points of view. In the quiz on racism, the answers were different to what I thought they'd be, so I learnt something new'.

'Not to judge people or stereotype them. They can be different. It's nice to meet other people - you should experience it'!

'To interact with other students. To speak open-minded. To discuss important matters'.

'During discussions before the link day, there were no Asians in our class and everyone was looking from one point of view, eg thinking that Asians are racist towards us, but then when we got to work with some, I saw they were really nice and it changed my opinion about them, and others in my class too, they changed their opinions'.

'Media can persuade us to believe what they want us to believe'.

'You can't class someone or single them out because of their skin or whether they have British Citizenship -its about individuals' characters/personality. There will be nasty people in all groups, whatever culture, but most from all groups are nice'.

What do you think about the idea of 2 schools from the same area linking up together?

'They should do it all over the country and more often because it really helps you to think about what you're doing, it's fun but it helps you with your work as well'.

'Good idea. You get to meet different people who say different things and have different ideas. You can find someone you've got something in common with'.

'It's good cos you got to share your ideas cos in the normal classroom there's only a few ideas but when there's more people there are more ideas and opinions. We heard more about their opinions'.

'I think other schools would benefit from it as much as we did'.