The Whose Chair Project
About
Background
In January 2020, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched the Shared Endeavour Fund, a grants programme to support civil society projects that strengthen communities against extremism, encourage more Londoners to stand up to hate and intolerance, safeguard Londoners vulnerable to radicalisation and stop the spread of hateful and supremacist ideologies.
Introduction
The Whose Chair project followed on from the success of the Draw up a Chair project which used fiction (“The Boy at the Back of Chair” by Onjali Q. Rauf) to help understand the experience of being a refugee, develop empathy, and safely challenge non factually based perceptions that could lead to intolerance.
Owing to covid lockdown restrictions, the Draw up a Chair project had to change its delivery format, which worked really well, so it was included in the Whose Chair project.
What was involved in delivering the Whose Chair project
We worked with local Prevent officers to recruit primary schools to the project in Bexley, Barking & Dagenham, Havering & Redbridge.
The following schools took part:
Goresbrook Primary, Dagenham
Longlands Primary, Bexley
Manford Primary, Redbridge
Parkway Primary, Bexley
Roding Primary, Dagenham
St Anthony's Catholic Primary, Redbridge
St Joseph's Catholic Primary, Dagenham
St Mary's Catholic Primary, Havering
St Vincent's Catholic Primary, Dagenham
Wells Primary, Redbridge
Valence Primary, Dagenham
Teaching materials were designed by our education consultant who teaches KS2 students
Teachers were trained how to use the resources and take part in the evaluation
Teachers delivered the sessions to year 5 and 6 classes as well as one Year four class.
Schools submitted students’ posters for the Poster competition, as well as samples of students’ written exercises and surveys
The winner of the poster competition was announced. Well done Ethan from St Vincent’s Catholic school .
The surveys and samples were evaluated and sent across for external evaluation.
The evidence from schools showed students had gained awareness of refugees as well as shown empathy. They were able to recognise and safely challenge non factually based perceptions that could lead to intolerance and know how to stand up to intolerance