High school pupils across Bolton learned about hate crime and how to deal with it thanks to not-for-profit social enterprise UK Funding Futures.

The organization, co-founded by award-winning beauty business owner Hayley Darroch, spoke to 40 students and 10 teachers from St Joseph’s RC High School, Ladybridge High School, Little Lever School and King’s Leadership Academy.

The Hate Crime Awareness workshop resulted from a grant to Funding Futures and covered a wide variety of associated subjects including the importance of reporting hate crime and how to report it.

The day started with a pre-learning questionnaire to gather students’ prior knowledge then they worked in groups, discussing what they already knew and how hate crimes are viewed within their communities.

They also discussed how safe and confident they would feel if they were victim to or witnessed a hate crime.

Pupils created artwork based on their thoughts, feelings and emotions and this artwork was then transferred onto nail tips with acrylic paints to create nail art with an important meaning.

“Although we were discussing a serious topic, we designed the day to be fun and engaging, allowing the students’ creativity to shine through the artwork,” explained Hayley

Added Funding Futures’ co-founder Billy Darroch: “I was humbled by the openness and bravery of the girls discussing their lived experience of hate crime.

“The number of children who have experienced or witnessed a hate crime shows just how much education on how and why we should be reporting them is important.”

Students completed a post-learning questionnaire which showed how the workshop had increased overall knowledge on hate crime by 50 per cent.

The workshop was visited by Andrew Bailey, the Community Safety Officer for Bolton Council, whose work includes tackling hate crime in communities.

He chose a winner from each school to be crowned Hate Crime Champion. They received a trophy and were tasked with relaying the messages from the day to the rest of their school.

Praising the initiative, Mr Bailey said the workshop was “an innovative way of raising awareness of narratives and behaviour that is unacceptable.”