Pupils to be shown assembly on respect after riots

The “Big Back to School Assembly” will be streamed across the UK from St Nicholas Church of England Primary Academy in Boston, Lincolnshire, where a map on the wall pinpoints all the countries in which its pupils were born, each one with facts to help them better understand one another’s backgrounds.

With about 20 different languages spoken among the pupils, head teacher Fiona Booth said her staff were used to promoting a sense of “belonging” – but it was harder to do that during the summer holidays.

“Friday is about just kick-starting where we left off before summer, because of everybody’s different experiences,” she said.

“The things that have been streamed [on to] children’s mobile devices, [on to] grown-ups’ television screens – we’ve had no control over that. We’ve not been able to temper any of that. We’ve not been able to anchor or bring the calm in that chaos.”

Mrs Booth said some children would have family members who may have taken part in the unrest, while others were from households targeted during the violence.

She is braced for some friction between pupils, but said tolerance was “not the same as liking everybody”, and that one of the school’s roles was to teach children “how to disagree well”.

“It’s about plugging back into that message and saying that the minute you put on your jumper, the minute you say this is the school you attend, what you’re actually saying is, ‘and I wholeheartedly uphold all of the values that St. Nicholas promotes’,” she said.