Newton Abbot students win accolades for anti-racism song at national event

“Our song spreads a very important message: show racism the red card”

Imogen Perrins and Kate Sampson from Coombeshead Academy certainly hit the right notes when they travelled to Wolverhampton’s Molineux Stadium for the Show Racism the Red Card competition—earning applause, accolades, and even a football in the process.

Show Racism the Red Card is the UK's leading anti-racism education charity delivering anti-racism education, training and workshops to over 50,000 young people and adults across the UK each year.

The year ten GCSE music students were honoured at the ceremony as part of the charity’s competition, which is the largest equalities themed one in the UK, attracting around 25,000 participants from over 400 schools. Youngsters were asked to produce creative work with an original anti-racism theme. Award categories included artwork, creative writing, film, music and t-shirt design.

Prior to the ceremony the duo were able to explore the grounds and take a look at the artwork of other competition winners. They also got to take part in some workshops linked to the competition.

The hosts presented the prizes to the winners of each category, after their work had been shared to the audience.

Imogen and Kate performed their song ‘Hate in our Hearts’ to the crowd and afterwards they were given goodie bags filled with football related prizes - including a top-quality football. They even got the chance to speak to some of the footballers in attendance.

Kate and Imogen’s song is on YouTube and you can watch it here.

Imogen Perrins and Kate Sampson said: “As we were in the music category, we had been asked to perform our song in front of a huge audience, which was very nerve-wracking. However, once we were up on stage, we were greeted with applause, which was very encouraging for us.

“It was a great opportunity for us to not only perform in front of a crowd, but also to spread a very important message through our song: show racism the red card.”

Helen Coulson, headteacher at Coombeshead Academy said: “Everyone at Coombeshead is so proud of Imogen and Kate. Not only have they done amazingly well to win this award, they have conveyed a really important message through their song. I hope they enjoyed every minute of the awards ceremony - it sounds like it was an experience to remember.”

Matthew Shanks, CEO of Education South West said: “Many congratulations to Imogen and Kate on this brilliant achievement. They are clearly extremely talented songwriters and musicians, but more than that they are also exactly the sort of socially conscious and engaged young people we hope to create at Education South West schools.”