What do you see in the picture, who do you think this is? What is he doing, what do you think this story might be about?
David Volante is a store manager in Handsworth, Birmingham.
Where is Birmingham?
What do you know about Birmingham?
Birmingham is one of the most diverse cities in the UK, which over one million people call home. It is known as an area of super diversity.
What do you think super diversity means?
Many of those people were born in Birmingham, some moved here. Every single resident is unique, much more than their defined ethnicity.
What is a defined ethnicity?
What does this sentence mean: "We are much more than our defined ethnicity"?
A recent census showed data for ethnicity in Birmingham.
What is a census?
The census showed 48.6% of people in Birmingham are White or White British, 31% are Asian or Asian British, 10% are Black or Black British.
What does Asian British, Black British mean?
In some areas of the city, there are less white faces and in some areas of the city there are less Black or Brown faces.
Why is this?
Some people talk about integration in British cities and use ethnicity as a marker to show an area is more integrated or less integrated.
What does integration mean?
If there are more white faces or brown faces in an area, does that mean it is less integrated?
Does good integration mean there has to be equal numbers of each ethnicity?
The photo shows David Volante outside his store in Handsworth, a part of Birmingham where there are many different ethnicities living together.
David says he has encountered "nothing but respect" from the residents of Handsworth since he moved there. "As a white British man, I've had nothing but respect in the two years I've worked on this road. I enjoy spending time in this multicultural area."
In the photo you see David pointing to a Diwali sign in his shop window.
What is Diwali?
Do you think David celebrates Diwali?
Why does he have a Diwali sign in his shop?
Bob Balu also lives in Handsworth and says, "We've got Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Caribbean, white people... we're all passionate about recognising everyone."
Why?
Why does Bob say he is passionate about "recognising" and not passionate about "celebrating" everyone? Would celebrate be a better word to use? (one could argue we don't actually need to celebrate each other, we need to respect, accept, understand each other)
"We've got 22 different cultural diversities on this road for food, it's not just curries and Bangladeshi food. We're giving it to everyone. And we all eat."
Why does Bob say "We all eat"?
"I love this area. It's got life and I'm always here to give back to it."
How can you give back to an area? What do you think Bob means?
What can we learn about Britain from this story?
Some people might say an area is better if everyone has the same skin. How do you think Bob and David would respond to that?
What do we say at our school about ethnicity?
What does British law say about ethnicity?
Why is this about No Outsiders?
Which British Value is this about?
Do you want this assembly as a power point? To join the free mailing list and receive these assemblies as power points every week, email me on a.moffat@excelsiormat.org
No Outsiders: We belong here by Andrew Moffat (scheme of work for primary schools)
Register to be a No Outsiders school (get access to members page with additional resources)
Watch CPD films showing schools teaching belonging
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