Ospreys players Jonathan Thomas and Adam Jones joined pupils from Swansea's Terrace Road and Blaen Y Maes Primary Schools at the Liberty Stadium for a special event hosted by Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC).
Chris Stokes from the SRtRC education team and former professional footballer Christian Roberts launched the event, delivering a workshop in the morning to the pupils, educating them on the topic of racism using interactive activities and discussions.
The pupils learnt about stereotypes that exist in society and were challenged on myths along with some negative views that they had learnt from their community.
Prior to attending the ground at school the children were set a task to prepare for the afternoon’s anti racism “press conference”.Pupils had to create a newspaper name and were tasked with researching racism in sport and society. They were required to study newspapers and online blogs to explore how they are designed and written. They then had to prepare questions for the press conference section of the event that they would then use post event and produce the finished newspaper article back at school.
The Ospreys pair attended the event to take part in the press conference session joined by Christian Roberts, Welsh Campaign manager Sunil Patel, and Campaign Worker Jason Webber.
Pupils now in the role of newspaper journalists were selected to ask questions, introduce themselves and the newspaper they worked for followed by their question, with the best question winning a signed Ospreys rugby ball and a SRtRC goodie bag.
When the pupils return to school they will use all the information they had learnt at the event along with the responses from the players to write and design their article.
Jonathan Thomas said:
“It was a pleasure to be involved in the event which covered off such an important message – there is no place for racism in sport or in society. The pupils had clearly done a lot of work to prepare for the press conference and they asked some difficult questions. Hopefully, they will take a lot away from the experience.”