MANCHESTER – The people of Manchester are trying to come to terms with a level of violence previously unseen in our city. I have lived here for four years and love the people, the friendliness, and the atmosphere of getting through hard times together.

But now, twenty-two families are mourning loved ones, murdered in the Arena attack which took place, Monday. Dozens more have lives on hold. They are static, living in hospital corridors and wards, city wide, holding their breathes as injured teenagers, slowly and painfully recover from their physical wounds.

Healing of a deeper kind is badly needed too.

Our children, are watching events unfold on screens in bedrooms. Their eyes wide in horror, their sense of personal safety violated. They are shedding tears, discussing why, how, who, could do such a terrible thing to their friends, neighbors and peer group.

They need answers.

And support.

A school in Sale, has already put in place therapeutic ways to help its primary aged students cope with the confusion and anger many now face.

Woodheys Primary School is the Religious Education Hub for Trafford at the heart of Manchester. I didn’t know what that meant either, until I visited the school, on the day the UK stood in silence to remember the victims of Manchester Arena.

The school was holding an assembly for Abrahamic faith leaders and speakers to show the similarities in terms of fasting for worship and self development.

100 students filed softly into the main hall to an image reading ‘Manchester A City United’ projected on the far wall.

Woodheys is no ordinary primary school.

Since 2008, interfaith principles have guided all aspects of the schools ethos. This is no mere gesture or nod, to deep concepts either. The main corridor is painted with a sky mural featuring a dove carrying a fig leaf. Paintings of children proclaiming different faiths and inspirational essays by pupils are side by side with quotes from the likes of Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

On one table is framed picture painted by a pupil which says simply ‘Islam is peace.’

Head teacher Laura Roberts has sought to infuse all aspects of the school life with ‘The Golden Rule’:

“Treat others as you would wish them to treat you”. Never has this inducement to fairness and care been more vital in the teaching and nurturing of youngsters in this community.

Healing Sought

Reverend Richard Mottershead, Ann Angel, and Lauren Booth Holding Peace ‘Mandala’s’

Children as young as six, are expressing anxiety related to the Manchester attack.

Along with anxiety there is anger, too. Reports coming in show a cascade of violence threatens to flood our streets. Thursday evening in the Arcadia library, Levenshulme, Muslim boys were studying for their GCSE’s when a gang of teenagers, verbally abused them before drawing and knife and making threats.

Just a few miles away, Jamia Qasmia Zahidia Islamic Center, Oldham, was set alight earlier in the week.

In Scotland, the letters ‘ISIS’ were sprayed onto a wall outside Glasgow’s Central Mosque.

Head Teacher Laura Roberts is unflinching in her approach to the issues being raised in her school.

“From this day forward life has changed. Our reactions are very important at this time. It’s very important for us to give ourselves time in silence to process our own thoughts and to take time before reacting, before speaking. For us to remind everyone that what we say to other people has deep and meaningful effects,” she told AboutIslam.net.

Eman is a parent with two ‘very happy’ children at Woodheys school. A Libyan refugee herself, news that the suicide attack was carried out by Salman Abedi, also from Libya, has added to her heartbreak for the parents who lost children in her community.

Her own daughter, aged 7, is struggling with grief too, but also another element is disturbing her.

Before going to sleep she wrote her feelings down:

“Why do people hate us? I love everybody I am not an enemy to anybody.”

At Woodheys special assembly, a pianist lightly accompanied a hymn. In this school of sharing and acceptance, a tiny Muslim girl in hijab in the front row earnestly sang to the prayer of St Francis.

It was impossible not to cry.

“Make me an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred, let me sow love…where there is sadness, joy…grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console…”

In her school’s garden of meditation, Laura Roberts told AboutIslam,

“At the end of the day we are global citizens. These children are our future, they will lead the way.”

Hatred can follow grief. So can healing. If the emotional needs of our young people are delicately addressed at this difficult time.

To Discuss Ways To Support Children In School Contact: Headteacher Laura Roberts 0161 973 4478.