A six-week-long summer school for 200 of the area's five-to 12-year-olds, held at St Stephen's primary school (pictured), continued meeting as conflicts broke out between local people and the 1,200 asylum seekers and refugees housed on the Sighthill estate. The area hit national headlines this month following the murder of a Kurdish man from Turkey.
Children from countries including Iraq, Turkey, Somalia and Afghanistan attended the summer club, which culminated in a celebratory family fun day last week. They have been taking part in activities from football and badminton to arts and crafts, photography and dancing.
Tina Suffredini, a local resident involved in running the Sighthill summer club, said, 'The whole summer club has been absolutely wonderful and there have been no problems even during the height of the racial troubles. Adults should certainly take a lesson from the children.
'A few children couldn't speak English but we used hand signals, and other children acted as translators. And of course, regardless of their nationality, all children play the same. When the tensions escalated our policy was to continue as normal and remember we are working for the children.
'It was a real opportunity for all children living in the area to join together, because the asylum seekers' children are shipped to schools outside the area in term-time so they have been unable to make friends locally. My son met a few boys at the summer club and now they're always playing together and I hope they will remain friends.
'The club has been a real success and my only worry is that now that the children are back at school the asylum seekers' children will start to feel isolated again, because there are no safe places to play and many parents don't let them play outside.'
Staff from Sighthill Nursery, which has six children from asylum seekers' families and 39 on the waiting list, returned to work last week to prepare for the children returning this week. Nursery manager Mary Garry said, 'The staff are all very aware that some of the children are traumatised, and we try to respond to that and provide a caring atmosphere. Most of all the children need smiling faces around them, toys to play with and a feeling of support and security.'
* See the feature on p12