´Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. Nelson Mandela.

Educating our pupils in values such as empathy, tolerance, resilience and solidarity towards other cultures and races is of great importance at Julio Verne School. Also, making our students aware of reducing inequalities and gender equality withing black people community,  is teaching them real world cultural issues and asking them to think critically in order to have a much more fair, equal and inclusive society.

That’s why our sixth grade pupils at Primary school embarked on Black Lives Matter project. Everything began in October when the Black History Month is usually celebrated in the UK. Students learnt about African American history through visual material. Then, they researched about black people community biographies such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcom X and many more important figures that fought against injustice and for a much more fair society.

Students presented their biographies to their classmates and created a poster with a well-known quote of the person they have chosen. Also, we spoke about Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of having a non-violence society where all citizens must be respected regardless their skin colour, race or religion. Finally, all the class created a Kahoot with questions about what they learnt from all the presentations and we ended the project having great fun.

Blanca Vila, 6th A

I think that the Black Lives Matter project has made many pupils even more creative than they were, it has also made us, as children we are, learn what the real world is. It’s a very fun project that also made us learn to be more tolerant and supportive with people from other races. I loved the project and I think we should do more things like this because it teaches us so many values.

María Villanueva, 6th B

Think it this way: no one was born being a racist. This is an issue to be learnt at home and at school. This kind of projects helps us to understand that racism is not okay but it also helps us not to become a racist person. Education helps us to recognise what is right or wrong in order to choose the right path. I would love to finish by sharing a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: Nothing in the world is more dangerous than ignorance and stupidity.

Jose Luis Benítez, 6th B

In my opinion, “Black lives matter” is an important movement, demonstrations started in 2012, but this issue started to happen long time ago. No matter the colour of your skin, what matters is what’s inside you, black and white persons must have the same amount of opportunities and respect.

I would also like to think that the world is changing its way of thinking, that all white persons of the world have started to treat black people with respect because they are not different, they have the same abilities as white people.

We are all equal, we don’t have to separate in groups, if people come from another place or race, remember that they are also persons, like you.

Jaime Tarazona, 6th A

When our teacher asked us to do this work, the whole class discovered that it was very interesting because regardless of the colour of our skin, we can achieve great goals in our life like Jackie Robinson, who is the person I have done the presentation about, he always wanted to be a professional baseball player and when he was 28 years old he was able to do it. He was the first African American to join a team of white people. In my opinion, I think this work has taught us that with hard work you can achieve everything you want.

And here you can see a short video about all the project: BLACK LIVES MATTER PROJECT VIDEO

Erika Catherine Schwartz

English Teacher, primary & secondary school stages.