This week our Youth and Partnerships Director, Ali Amla, marks the convergence of Interfaith Week (13th-20th November), Anti-Bullying Week (14th-18th November), and Islamophobia Awareness Month. Ali previously reflected on racism in an earlier piece:

https://solutionsnotsides.co.uk/blog/reflecting-on-racism

Hate crime is something that directly threatens the fair, compassionate and educated society that we want to be part of, and proud of. Two of the most common forms here in the UK are Antisemitism and Islamophobia, which always escalate when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is prominent in our media headlines, such as in May-June 2021 when Antisemitism increased more than 500% and Islamophobia more than 400%.

In the summer of 2022, we built the Olive Branch Award for British schools and this blog explains why. Here at SNS, we’re all about breadth of knowledge and perspectives, diving into complexity and exploring different experiences in a safe space. We want to empower young people and teachers to use critical-thinking skills to make decisions about political issues without shutting out those who make different decisions to ourselves. We want to promote and encourage empathy and make sure that all students have the chance to talk about tough issues.

With the upcoming elections in Israel, and the recent vote at the UK Labour Party conference by members to support Proportional Representation, we thought it would be a good time for Politics students to understand different types of governmental structure. In a rapidly changing political field, this is a short guide exploring Proportional Representation (PR) and Alternative Voting (AV) models, comparing to the UK first-past-the-post model (FPTP).

Dialogue on Israel-Palestine can be challenging, sensitive and requires empathy in order to remain solutions-focused, foster good relations and reduce tensions. Whilst having dialogue it is common for phrases and terms to cause an emotional discomfort or trigger.