Show Racism the Red Card (www.theredcard.org), the UK’s largest anti-racism educational charity was founded in 1996 thanks in part to a donation by then Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.

In the 1990’s Hislop was at a petrol station near St. James Park when he was confronted by a group of young people shouting racist abuse at him. Once one of the group members realised who they were shouting at they came over and asked for an autograph. At this moment Hislop realised the influential power of footballers to educate and increase awareness about racism and the charity was born.

Wear Red Day is a nationwide annual event the charity uses to raise money to fund their educational programmes.  Today the school and the Foundation came out in support of this charity and its message, that prejudice and discrimination have no place in our society. 

That this happened was down to the initiative and hard work of four young men; Will Callan, Archie McCusker, Richard Rose and Josh Simango. They pitched me the idea, recruited the Heads of King’s High, Warwick Prep and the Junior School to the cause, and delivered a series of assemblies to pupils and staff warning of the dangers of complacency and subconscious bias and sharing a powerful vision of a community in which all colours, creeds and cultures are represented and respected.

These are challenging times for us all and I am extremely grateful to them for bringing this half-term to such a positive conclusion. 

This week’s newsletter adopts a slightly different format and seeks to draw attention to some of the highlights of what has been an unusual half-term. Despite the circumstances a huge amount has been going on and for this pupils, staff and parents deserve credit, the positive way that everyone has pulled together and adapted to the new normal has been impressive and I would like to thank my colleagues and the boys for their efforts.

I wish you all an enjoyable half-term and look forward to welcoming the boys back to school in November.