Throughout this year, St Benedict’s Catholic College in Colchester, has been running a programme called ‘Free and Equal Ambassadors’ in partnership with ‘Beyond This’ with Peter Radford. The school has appointed 15 year 9 students to be ambassadors for the programme, who are learning and developing skills on how to tackle prejudice amongst their peers. As part of this programme, they have organised and run a campaign in school. This campaign focused on challenging racist language from their peers.
As part of this campaign, the ambassadors held an assembly for Holocaust Memorial Day. The event focused on conveying the message that genocide does not begin with the atrocities of the Holocaust, it begins with words.
After researching charities and organisations that resonated with their focal point, they found the Anthony Walker charity. The Anthony Walker Foundation is a charity established in 2006, in memory of Anthony Walker. It works to challenge racism, hate crime, and discrimination through education, awareness programmes and support for victims. The Foundation promotes equality, inclusion and understanding to help build a more respectful and inclusive society. The students were inspired by the way the charity took the tragic case of Anthony Walker and used it to promote a more peaceful world.
To raise money to contribute to the work of the Anthony Walker charity, St Benedict’s held a non-uniform ‘wear purple’ day – students could wear an item of purple clothing, or an accessory, to show their support. The students raised £1083 which has been sent to the Anthony Walker Foundation. The ambassadors are rightly, immensely proud of their work.
