Len Tingle Political Editor BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

99% of the children at Parkinson Road are Asian or asylum seekers

On 7 July 2006 three men from West Yorkshire detonated bombs which killed 52 people in London. One year on the Politics Show reports.

"The kids were very upset at the news of the bombings. Many were crying.

"They were confused, scared and wanted to know what was going to happen to them now.

"We even heard that the school might become a target as a sort of revenge. I'm happy to say that it didn't happen".

These are the words of Gugsy Ahmed, head teacher of Parkinson Lane Community Primary School in Halifax a year on from the London bombings.

Asian pupils

The 500 children at the school are almost exclusively drawn from the West Yorkshire mill town's British Asian community.

Head teacher, Gugsy Ahmet: The children were confused and scared

"This school is at the heart of the community with 99% being British Asian or asylum seekers.

"The big worry here when we heard the bombers were British Asians from West Yorkshire was that all the hard work done by children and staff to help draw the communities together might be destroyed.

"I am pleased to say there is no evidence of that happening.

"In fact, I think those events, in a tragic way, highlighted the issues we need to look at to help people live together."

Asians targeted?

Gugsy Ahmet knows all about the tension which squeezed the British Asian communities in the weeks following the bombings in London last July.

He was hauled off a train by police officers as he set off for Paris with two other teachers to plan for a school trip later in the year.

"The other two teachers with me were white and when we were approached they expected to be asked to leave the train and be questioned too. They were not."

In a discussion involving a group of 11 year olds from the school filmed by the cameras of the Politics Show they tackled the issues of why the police detained him, searched his bags and refused to believe he was a head teacher.

Police refused to believe Gugsy Ahmet was a Head teacher

Racial prejudice?

"It's because you're a British Asian, sir" says one 11 year old with little surprise in her voice.

"They just didn't think somebody like you would be allowed to run our school." It was a view echoed all around the table.

"Do you think that's changing? Do you think people are beginning to understand that British Asians like you can take responsible jobs?" asks Mr Ahmet.

All seven little heads around the table start to nod.

"I want to be a writer", says one. "I'm going to be a journalists or a lawyer" says another."

And the school did get its trip to France. As the official school video shows, they were the first to put on a show of Asian dancing in both the Louvre and in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

The Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and the North Midlands looks at the aftermath of the London bombings one year on.

The Politics Show

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Join presenter, Cathy Killick.The Politics Show returns on Sunday 16 July 2006 at 12:00 on BBC One.

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