Episode 3 Who Are We?

Hello, my name is Yonis. I'm 10-years-old and live in Coventry.

Coventry is a city with over 300,000 people.

It's in the West Midlands, not far from Birmingham.

I live with my family, seven people.

I've got a mum and I've got a dad.

And I've got three brothers and one sister.

Thank you.

My dad and my mum were born in Somalia.

My brother and my other brother,

Abdel and Mohamed, were born in Saudi.

And then we got me and then my sister, my brother,

we were born in Sweden.

I would count myself as Somali and then half British.

Because, you know, I live in England now

so I have a British background.

Because I can speak British, so that's kind of my background.

And my background as well is I go to a British school.

It's a really big primary school.

There are over 700 children.

The people from the school come from all over the world.

There are 45 languages spoken. Here are some of them.

I like Science in particular, because I like making new things.

We like doing experiments.

You do anything together and you don't know what comes up.

So, every sentence contains at least one main, most important clause.

Can you remember what we call that clause? Yes?

Independent clause, OK?

It makes sense on its...?

-Own.

-Own, OK?

This is my class, 60.

This is my teacher and today we're learning about literacy.

My best friends are Kassim, Shahal, Osman and Roy.

Bhalo Achhi,

that means, "How are you?" in Bangladesh.

-As-Salamu Alaykum, which means, "Hello" in Arabic.

-Osman?

Subax Wanaagsan means "Good morning" in Somali.

Hola. That means, "Hello" in Spanish.

Ryan, he's kind of funny.

He's kind of babyish.

We love him when he goes "Aw!"

And then we've got Kassim, he's clever.

We need him. And then we've got Osman.

He's kind of half a joker and he plans out games for us.

And then we've got Shihal, he's the little man, we all like him.

Yonis is just a joke.

Every time he makes excuses for us, he just can do it in seconds, yeah?

Everyone is unique, you know?

They all have something special about them.

We're all not the same, we all have different ideas and stuff like that.

So it's just like a unity together.

One of my favourite things at school is on Friday afternoons,

where we can choose between lots of different subjects.

Cooking.

It's kind of nice.

You can smell the nice bread.

Or musical mayhem.

Or even gardening.

But today is netball.

Before we play a game we have to do some warm-up exercises.

I like sports because you have to use different parts of your body.

In netball you've got to use your sporty hands.

HE RECITES IN ARABIC

Religion is very important to me,

because you need religion every time, everywhere.

Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity,

Islam, any religion, Sikhism, any.

You've got to be known as a person who can hold their religion.

I'm a Muslim.

Every Friday after school, I have Arabic lessons.

We do Koran, Hadith, you can go on and on. I like it, it's kind of fun.

First of all tell us, what is Hadith?

What's the difference between Koran and Hadith?

The Koran is the word of Allah, when Allah says something.

This is the Hadith, which Abu Hurayrah wrote,

and he was writing everything he heard.

I go to the mosque four times a week and I pray five times a day.

Today it's my turn to lead the prayers at home.

Keep your back straight.

Straight, so we can see you're tall.

Straight!

Although my parents were born in Somalia, I've never been there.

Before I left, Somalia was a very nice country.

It has 24 hours summertime,

slightly different to UK.

What about you?

Somalia is a beautiful place, white sun, it's a beautiful area.

What about now?

Somalia is still beautiful now.

It's only certain areas where it's a bit messed up.

What do you mean, messed up?

Because of conflicts and stuff like that, civil war.

Would you like to go to Somalia?

-After the war, I'd definitely like to go to Somalia.

-Why?

Because who'd want to go to Somalia when there's a war?

I'd go when there's peace, when there's beauty.

Wicked.

In secondary school I want to go to boarding school in anywhere,

but I'm most interested in America, because I want to go to America.

Boarding school is... I want to do Islamic boarding school.

My ambitions are...

It's kind of just, when I grow up I'll think more,

but now what I'm thinking is I want to be a doctor or a scientist.

Hi, I'm Jacob, I'm 11-years-old and I'm in Bridgwater.

And we're the Bridgwater Sea Cadets!

Bridgwater is a busy market town set in the heart of Somerset.

It's quite a small town of about 30,000 people.

It's home of the Bridgewater Sea Cadets.

I'm a leading junior cadet.

There are about 16 of us in all.

I think the Sea Cadets is a quite important part of my life,

because I'm quite proud of being a Sea Cadet.

It's a fun activity I do.

It's one of the funnest activities I've ever done.

Today, we're on the waters of Bridgwater Docks.

We take turns to steer the boats, and learn how they're operated.

Every year, we take part in a Remembrance Sunday ceremony

in the town centre.

It's when people from the town come to pay their respects

for the men and women who lost their lives in world conflicts.

Some of us had grandparents and great-grandparents

who fought in the world wars.

It's important we keep remembering, so there will be a time

when we're not here, when we have all gone whereever we're going to go to.

Our children will be here, and they want to remember

about the people that died, so we could all have peace.

-This is my great-great uncle.

-Great-great uncle.

And he served in the First and Second World War,

and this is my great-grandad's army reserve booklet.

This is the Hood.

My great-great uncle worked on it in the Second World War.

He was a marine.

He carried a Lee Enfield around with him.

He was working at the time, when it sunk around the midships.

-He went down with the ship.

-It was hit round the midships?

He went down with the ship.

Unfortunately, after it got sunk by the Bismarck.

-Gosh.

-Near Greenland, off the coast of Greenland.

My dad was in the Navy, and he was an engineer for the Fleet Air arm.

-An engineer for the Fleet Air arm?

-And this was his dog tags.

What the dog tag makes us remember is about remembrance.

Sometimes people do get injured and become unconscious and die.

On the dog tag, it tells them, the medics, what kind of blood type the people have got.

It also tells them who they are, so the body can be identified.

That just reminds us of how serious war can be, because people die and get seriously injured.

Who can tell me what one of these is?

A poppy.

Who can tell me why a poppy is significant on Remembrance Sunday?

There was a big battle at Flanders fields, and the ground

was all churned up and they thought nothing would grow there again.

The first plant to grow was poppies.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the First World War stopped.

Peace was declared.

That day is known as Armistice Day.

If you're at school on that day, you have two minutes' silence.

People can't always stop at work if they're driving a bus or flying a plane, whatever they're doing,

then we do it on Remembrance Sunday, which is the bit we're going to take part in this Sunday.

We're all going to be there in our best uniform.

We're going to be respectful, shiny shoes, looking smart.

One of the last things that happens is a very special prayer or ode.

PO Cox is going to read that out for us.

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

It's really moving to see some of the poppy wreaths.

Some are to be men and women who fell in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's a reminder of the brave men and women who are prepared to risk their lives for our country.

I'm really proud of being a Sea Cadet, because I feel I'm giving

something back, doing something for my country.

I want to go into the Navy, cos it's a family tradition.

It's run down through the family, the Navy and Marines.

I think it would be an enjoyable job to do.

It'll show you respect and discipline, and would be an ideal job.

My name is Lexie, I'm 11 years old and I live in Birmingham.

Birmingham is a big city of over a million people.

It's in the Midlands.

This is my friend Nevika, we've been friends for 6.5 years.

Her personality is very bubbly.

She's serious one day, she's not serious another day.

Lexie is very emotional, loving, and caring.

We're close, really close.

At playtime, we're always together.

We like to dance, sing, mess around and joke.

# Walking through the city centre

# One boy tapped me on my shoulder

# Asked me for my name and number... #

Walking through the city centre, one boy tapped me on my shoulder,

asked me for my name and number, said may name was Milexia.

GIGGLES

We write different songs.

If we have a bad day or a good day, we write about the day.

Or if we don't have nothing to say really, we just write it out of nowhere.

It depends on our feelings.

Hello, and welcome to Lozelles News.

-My name is Nevika.

-And I'm Lexie.

Over the next few months, we'll be making a special documentary.

Yes, Lozelles will have exclusive access to the eco-furbishments on Carpenter's Road.

'As well as being best friends, we're both reporters

'for Lozelles News, an online news channel in Birmingham.

'It's great to be able to tell children about really important

'things going on in the environment.'

And what's in your neighbourhood.

Look at Lexie and Nevika!

-I want to do that. It looks fun.

-I know.

Three, two, one.

-Me?

-No, it's Lexie!

I like being a reporter because we get to go to interesting places and find out more about where we live.

Today, we're reporting on a new eco-friendly power plant.

-Three, two, one.

-We're here at the Energy Centre just off Broad Street.

Leo from the energy management team is going to show us round his CHP scheme.

Before we interview Leo, he takes us on a tour of the power plant.

We also get to go to the top of a hotel that gets its energy from the power plant.

-Nevika, I can see our school.

-Where?

Remember we can always seed the BT?

Oh yeah! Our school is just there.

Right, girls. We need to concentrate, because we haven't got a lot of time here.

What we'll do, we'll do one question at a time.

Leo, what's a combined heat and power scheme?

Combined heat and power is where we use an engine to generate electricity.

We capture the heat from that generator, which is normally wasted.

So that's why it's more eco-friendly.

How much electricity does it produce?

The Broad Street scheme generates 1.5 megawatts of electricity.

That's enough electricity to light 25,000 60 watt light bulbs.

It's a large amount of electricity.

A lot of things go wrong.

It's like when we say something and we say the word, but we get it

stuck on our tongue, on the tip of our tongue.

-Three, two, one.

-By how much will it reduce Birmingham's carbonissions?

-Emissions!

Emissions! Emissions!

Me and my mum just live at home by ourselves.

I wouldn't like it to be any different, because we just have a good time and we enjoy ourselves.

We have a laugh when it's needed.

My mum has a problem with her spine, which means she has trouble moving around.

Since my mum was diagnosed, I started helping her,

helping her up the stairs and doing chores after school.

Now, I'm her main carer.

Thank you. I've got to take these.

This is my grandfather when he first came to England.

He worked as a bus conductor.

This is my grandmother.

She worked as a hairdresser.

My mum came from Kingston, which is the capital of...

-Jamaica.

-There you go! And dad came from Westmorelands,

which is a little place in Jamaica, it's more rural like a countryside.

My mum and dad are divorced.

I see my dad every two or three weeks. I'm a bit like my dad.

I'm very ambitious, and when I put my mind to things I need to do it.

Sorry I'm late. What are we doing in the city centre anyway?

You know we're working hard in Lozelles to reduce our carbon footprint.

Since you've been doing the reporting at school,

I've found you very, very articulate,

even to me. Sometimes I'm thinking, where are these big words coming from?

But yes, I love how you're developing and I just love your confidence.

I'm more confident talking to adults.

I want to go to university, have a good career, and maybe become a singer as well.

# I need you and I'm hurting, father

# Can it ever be the same?

# I'm so alone, please take me home

# To be your child again

# To be your child again. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media

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