CALLINGTON Community College and The Barbican Theatre organised a successful day that encouraged Year 8 students to examine their values, attitudes and beliefs and to explore how to deal with other people’s differences.

At the start of the day, students were split into nine groups and instructed to create a new cultural identity for the members of their group, including a range of norms, practices and beliefs. Cultural ambassadors from each group visited the other groups to inform them about their way of life.

The groups were tested when an ecological disaster hit two of the homelands of the new cultures. Each of the other cultures were asked to help the refugees from the devastated communities. Each group decided how many refugees they would take and what the entry requirements would be for the refugees who had recently been made homeless.

Upon completion of the simulation, students participated in an evaluation of what had happened during the morning and they were encouraged to reflect on the decisions they made, particularly in relation to the acceptance of and processing of refugees.

In the afternoon each group met with two ethnically diverse visitors, both of whom had personal experiences that directly related to the fictional simulations from the morning session.

Students initially asked shallow, closed questions that revealed little about the visitors, but as their questioning skills grew, the students unearthed the fascinating and important stories that each visitor had to share.

Some comments from the students at the end of the day included: ’You should think carefully about judging others based on appearances’; ’It’s good to be different and you should be accepting of people who are different to you’; ’It was really nice to learn all about different people’; ’Stereotypes are normally wrong’ and ’The day was very inspirational and eye-opening.’

Some of the issues that were raised during the day, including the themes of tolerance and diversity, will be continued through the PSHEE and citizenship curriculum areas and the wider curriculum with support in the delivery of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development) and ’British Values’.