Unitees Competition
This term, we are taking part in a competition called ‘Unitees’. This is an international competition for schools that aims to spread a message of tolerance and understanding among young people by challenging them to design a T-shirt (or ‘Unitee-shirt’!) that celebrates the theme of unity.
The competition was created by Mike Haines, who created the ‘Global Acts of Unity’ campaign after his brother was tragically killed by terrorists in Syria taking part in humanitarian work to help refugees. Mike Haines didn’t want the tragedy to lead to more anger and hatred and instead wanted to find a way to build unity within communities and spread a message of tolerance and understanding. He believes that if we open our hearts, minds and arms to all people then we can only grow closer and our resistance to intolerance grows stronger. The Unitees competition was created to “invite young people, as leaders of tomorrow, to add their powerful voices to this call.”
In their form groups, each student in Years 7 – 10 will be creating their own design for a T-shirt, thinking about what unity means to them. Their class will then come together to create their final ‘form’ design, which they will be able to make into an actual T-shirt!
The T-shirts will be displayed in school and then judged by a celebrity guest! We also plan to host a staff fashion show to model the designs.
We’ve been focusing a lot in school this year on embedding ideas about UNICEF’s ‘The Right of the Child’ and becoming a ‘Rights Respecting School’ and this celebration of unity is an important celebration of the rights that everyone has to not face discrimination, for all children’s views to be heard and respected and for every minority religion, culture and language to be celebrated and valued.
Being compassionate and socially responsible are two of our core values. This competition is an opportunity to celebrate and encourage unity not only in our school community, but across our country! We’re very excited to see the wonderful ideas and designs created by our students!
Year 10 Respect Council
Mrs Hall Deputy Headteacher
Miss Starkie Equality Lead
