An eight-year-old pupil’s powerful speech highlighting 'equality' moved many of her teachers to tears.

Ummihani Hanif is a year 4 pupil at Wensley Fold Academy, Blackburn and was asked to do a short speech on how she would like to change the world.

Despite working from home like many of her classmates, she has been taking part in daily online lessons during lockdown and was tasked with writing and delivering the speech as part of her English oracy work.

The children worked with actor Paul Simpson from Little Big Mouth Drama via Zoom on a project ‘Ignite’ to help the children find their voices.

In the message Ummihani says: “If I could change the world I would solve the problem of equality.

“Do you know what people and light bulbs have in common? My name is Ummihani Hanif and I am going to answer that for you.

“We both are different colours, different shapes and different sizes.

“We are both made in different places. Some of us are bright some of us are dim. Some of us are clear and some are broken.

“We appear to be very different on the outside but the thing about these light bulbs is there is one current running through each bulb.

“In the same way there is a single energy running through each person on this planet. It does not matter what you look like. It does not matter what your race is. Gender – nationality – that’s just the bulb outside.

“Inside is who you really are. – energy.

“Don’t believe in energy? Let’s say for example you had a friend named Lavender and you have been visiting Lavender in the hospital. Until one day Lavender unfortunately dies.

“And you say ‘Oh no Lavender died’ but her body is still there, her race her gender is still there but you say she died? Why? Because deep down you know Lavender was more than her body. She was intelligent energy that brought life to her body.

“Energy is who we are and energy has no colour. Energy is not black nor white. Energy is not Muslim, Christian or atheist. We are clever creative universal energies and if we understood that, we would finally know what wise men and wise women like Martin Luther King have been trying to tell us since the dawn the time. That we are one…”

Wensley Fold is part of a number of schools who are currently working in partnership with Voice 21 in order to develop and enhance oracy across the school. Voice 21 have confirmed that they are going to use the speech in their training material.

Ummihani’s teacher, Fatema Sidat said: "I am so proud of Ummihani. 

"It amazes me how an eight-year-old can produce such an insightful, moving speech and illustrates how children aren't given enough credit as to what they can produce through hard work and determination."

She added: “We can all learn something from Ummihani on her perspective of people and the world. I have no doubt that Ummihani will do well in the future if she continues to work hard."

The school is no stranger to producing pioneering thinkers and speechmakers. 
In 2019 former Year 6 pupil Sara Hussain was commended for her speech about the Manchester Arena terror attack.  

Sara’s speech won the top prize in the area’s interschool public speaking competition and was widely shared on social media.

Headteacher Donna Simpson said: “We are so proud of Ummihani, she is a wonderful human being and has written the most beautiful speech. It has given us something to celebrate in these challenging times.”