Equality in Practice Assemblies and other activities for primary schools

1. Equality in PracticeAssemblies and other activities for primary schools

2. Parrot Island

3. Parrot Island • Once there was a green, beautiful island. The island had wide, sandy beaches, palm trees and dense forests where plants and shrubs growing delicious fruit.

4. Parrot Island • Lots of yellow parrots lived in the trees. They had plenty to eat, they had lots of yellow parrot friends and they were very happy.

5. Parrot Island • On the other side of the island there lived a group of blue parrots. • They too were very happy.

6. Then one day, one of the yellow parrots came flying home, all upset and looking ruffled. ‘What’s the matter, pet?’, asked a worried yellow parrot mum. ‘Well’, the young parrot spluttered, I’ve just seen something really weird. It w a parrot but it was bright blue!’ ‘How ugly’, chorused the other yellow parrots, we can’t have blue parrots on this island!”

7. So the yellow parrots went over to where the blue parrots were. There was a nasty fight. Nearly all the parrots, both blue and yellow, were killed in this fight.

8. … but that is not the end of the story. There were just a very few parrots left. • ‘It will be easier to find food and friends on this island if we all stay together’, one of them said. • The other parrots agreed. The blues and yellows made friends, and some blues married yellows too. • So, after a little while, the blue and yellow parrots between them produced …

9. …you guessed it, some little green parrots! • Soon there were lots of greens around. The blues and the yellows were all very happy about this, but it’s still not the end of the story.

10. Some of the green parrots were looking at the other green parrots. They noticed that not all greens were the same! • Some had blue heads. • Some had yellow faces. • Some had black beaks. • Some had pink beaks.

11. Some of the blue faces were beginning to fight some of the pink beaks. They called each other names. It was all getting very nasty. Finally, the older blue and yellow parrots called everyone together for a big meeting. A yellow parrot said, ‘I think it’s really nice having all those different looking beaks and faces. it would be so boring if we were all the same!” A blue parrot added, ‘This fighting and name calling is making me very unhappy and I’ve seen how dangerous it can get in the end. What shall we do to make it stop?’

12. What should the parrots do?