21st June 2005

Pupils win Anne Frank prize for work on racial awareness

Pupils from Bridge of Don Academy were rewarded for their work on promoting racial and cultural awareness yesterday.

Every pupil at the Aberdeen secondary school was involved in projects focusing on people and regions from around the world.

And yesterday, in a ceremony organised by Grampian Racial Equality Council (GREC), they were awarded the prestigious Anne Frank Prize.

The school was one of 15 competing for the honour at an event at Pittodrie Stadium's Legends Lounge yesterday.

They were one of five schools shortlisted for the main prize - a bronze statue of Anne Frank, the heroic Dutch concentration camp victim who wrote a diary of the two years during World War II when she hid in an Amsterdam house before being captured by the Germans.

Regional winners Mile End Primary, Kincorth Academy, the Gordon primary school in Huntly, and St Thomas Roman Catholic Primary, in Keith, were also in the running.

Their projects included work about Anne Frank herself, the Show Racism the Red Card scheme, Comic Relief and a number of individual school project items.

Grampian Police Constable Christa Reid, who has been seconded to the GREC, said the quality of work was "extremely high".

"This is the highest number of entries we have had since the competition began," she said.

"We've had a fantastic, really successful day."