The Battle of Cable Street 80th Anniversary

Thank you to everyone who entered our competition to celebrate the Battle of Cable Street. The judges have met and the winners decided:

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We were delighted with the number and range of entries for our competition from young people across Tower Hamlets. All the winners have had their entries reproduced in the poster below which will go in to all schools, libraries and ideas stores in the borough. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners will also receive a poster of their entry for themselves and their school.

Judges, local historian David Rosenberg and Tower Hamlets Young Mayor, Deng Yang, really enjoyed judging the competition and said they felt uplifted by the quality of entries and commitment to equality. As Deng said, ” It’s nice to think that the children who produced this work are part of our future.”

We are also grateful to Rachael Saunders, Lead Member for Education in Tower Hamlets, for her support for the project

Some schools set the competition as homework, others ran workshops as part of a drop-down day others dedicated curriculum time to build a cross-curricular project.

This report from Christchurch School gives a flavour of the competition’s impact:

“We had a whole week of activities for the commemoration of the Battle of Cable Street. We visited a synagogue, a Jewish tailors, the 24 hour bagel shop and Cable Street throughout the week. Your poster competition was absolutely perfect for the children to take part in.”

We are really grateful to all the teachers and schools who made time in a very crowded, and often constrained curriculum, to enable their young people to enter the competition. We think schools should have more freedom to develop activities like this which are so valuable for broad, rich, deep learning but can’t be easily tested.

It is more important than ever that, at a time when some seek to divide our community, that we come together and celebrate its diversity and solidarity. The different communities of Tower Hamlets have a long and proud tradition of coming  together to fight racism, fascism and the politics of hate.

We are already being asked if we will repeat the competition next year.

Listen to David Rosenberg talking about the Battle of Cable Street on Radio 4 from 18:00.

More coverage of the anniversary and the Cable Street mural here and here

Poster Competition: Celebrating Diversity and Solidarity in the East End

East London Teachers Association will be running a poster competition for young people in Key Stages 1-4 on this theme.  Details will be going out to schools soon.

Competition details and rules

1. Create an A3 poster on the theme ‘Celebrating Diversity and Solidarity in the East End’.
2. All entries must be two-dimensional and on A3 card or paper.
3. Entries can be a painting, a drawing or a collage.
4. One entry per person – group entries are permitted on the same basis.
5. The name of the artist, the key stage, and the name of the school must be written in BLOCK CAPITALS on the back of the poster.
6. As a condition of entry, all entrants agree that ELTA can reproduce their poster (fully credited) and share it publicly in any appropriate venue, on-line and on social media.
7. Three prizes will be awarded in each of the key stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the form of high-street shopping vouchers:

                        3^rd prize          £10

                        2^nd prize         £20

                        1^st prize          £30

The four 1st prize winners from each key stage will have their poster professionally reproduced and sent to every school, library and Idea Store in Tower Hamlets.

8. All entries must be sent to:

         NUT Office (Poster Competition),         

         Shadwell Centre, 455 The Highway, London E1W 3HP

9. The deadline for the competition is Friday 21^st October 2016
10. Announcement of winners will take place in November 2016
11. The competition will be judged by a panel, drawn from our local community, whose decision is final.

Download the rules Schools_poster_competition_rules

Download the poster ELTA Cable Street competition poster

Local History Walks

Our two local history walks with David Rosenberg were a great success with over 50 teachers signed up to go on a guided tour of Cable Street and surrounds.

We will be organising another local history walk in the summer term.

School Visits

David Rosenberg is also willing to come into schools to talk with students about Cable Street where possible.

If you would like to invite David into your school, please contact kiritunks@gmail.com