Workshops
Agencies
Leeds schools involved
Key opinions
Talking Back
Activities
Linked work
Learning through evaluation
Walk Tall was a
seminar for young people to give their opinions and ideas about how they want
information to be delivered to them. The Victims of Crime Partnership have
spent the last 18 months consulting with children and young people about many
issues relating to their safety and well-being in school, at home and in their
community. This seminar marked a point at which all of this learning could
culminate in encouraging school sand agencies to work together in a way that
children and young people
get the information
they need,
in a way that they
will benefit fully from it
The following information gives an
overview of the events of the seminar, suggestions as to additional activities
schools can engage in, and links to some of the agencies involved in the seminar.
Please feel free to browse this
information, and do revisit this page regularly, as we hope to keep it updated
with new information as it emerges.
Workshops
The main focus of the seminar was
to provide children and young people with a selection of typical workshops they
might experience when agencies visit their school. The difference here being
that they would get the chance to evaluate these workshops – and indeed other
similar lessons from agencies visiting schools.
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Workshop A: |
BASE 10 |
Drugs Awareness |
Anthony Casson |
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Contact: |
Up Project – Base 10, |
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Tel: |
0113 2433552 |
Email: |
info@base10drugs.org.uk |
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Website |
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Learning
Young people had the chance to
share their views and better understand the nature and harmful effects of
drugs. This was conducted in a safe environment with opportunity to freely
question issues and share their own views and thoughts.
Aims
To increase basic
knowledge of drugs and the dangers of drugs
To discuss the
services available to young people in
Activities
- Exercise: Drug names
- Exercise: Harm continuum
- Question and answer session
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Workshop B: |
Soaring High Transitions |
Changes in our lives |
Lori Graham-Dixon |
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Contact: |
Soaring High – St. Luke’s Youth
Project, 173a |
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Tel: |
0113 276 1830 |
Email: |
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Website |
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Learning
Young people had the opportunity
to look at different types of change and ultimately to look at changes in their
lives at school. Young people were able, and encouraged, to explore their
thoughts, feelings and opinions about changes at school such as being at a new
school, bullying, etc..
Aims
To understand that
change comes in many forms
To explore how change
can affect us positively and negatively.
Activities
- Presentation: Changes – chemical, physical and social
- Exercises: Modelling and role play
- Feedback and discussion
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Workshop C: |
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What the Police do and how it
affects us |
Bob Bowman Andy Hall |
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Contact: |
Chapeltown Police Station, |
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Tel: |
0113 241 3238 |
Email: |
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Website |
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Learning
Young people were able to get a
clear picture of the role of the police in relation to children and young
people. They were encouraged to ask questions and clarify what the police do,
how this might help them and what contact they might have with the police, why
and what happens.
Aims
To give a clearer
picture of the whole of the role of the police
To encourage children
and young people to be comfortable getting information from the police
Activities
- Presentation: The police, and their role
- Interactive discussion – what I know and don’t know about the
law
- Examples and questions
Activities
Throughout the day, young people
were engaged in a number of activities – some for learning, and others just for
fun:
Splat –
Question: what would you do if
someone through a custard pie at you?
Answer: Duck and let the two
people either side of you throw custard pies at each other.
Sounds messy doesn’t it, but with
virtual custard pies it has all the markings of a game introduced by The
Project (theproject@wyya.co.uk).
The young people’s day was kicked off with what had to be the largest game of
Splat on record (maybe). All adults and young people were encouraged to join in
– some needed more encouragement than others. From 75 pie-slingers down to just
one final winner. We couldn’t help noticing, however, that the adults were a
little put out at some of the referee’s decisions….especially when it was they
who were out….Hmmmm!
If you have never played it for
goodness sake catch up….this is the 21st Century.
Photo Wall –
No famous people were able to
attend the seminar (we did invite them, but it clashed with the Oscars). We
were able to provide the next best thing….having your picture taken
Evaluations –
A major aspect of the day was to
encourage children to evaluate. It was always going to be too easy to hand out
evaluation questionnaire. Once again The Project excelled with an array of
interactive evaluation styles and activities (more details in the evaluation
section).
Unbeknown to the young people
however, Art Attack, meets Question Time and Pop Idol was emerging from the
adult workshop next door. As the schools and agency staff discussed evaluation
styles the creativity was unstoppable – here are just a few:
Art Attack: A picture says a thousand words when you give your evaluation on a
poster – Neil Buchanan won’t feel threatened by the giant art attack, but the
message was made loud and clear (well bright and clear).
Question Time: What better way than to find out opinions and thoughts –
turn everyone into a politician for 5 minutes. This style of feedback on a
workshop not only gets the evaluation done, but encourages public speaking and
confidence (oh, and possibly a little arguing, so beware).
Pop Idol:
Nasty Simon Cowell or Sweet Nikki Chapman – there can be lots of difference of
opinion and giving ‘permission’ to be critical can ensure this happens. It is
important to encourage a range of opinions – and a role play can bring this out
in adults and children. Good fun, and effective, but be careful to ‘de-role’
afterwards…we don’t need too many Simon Cowells wandering the school corridors.
Leeds Schools
There are over 65 schools who have
been involved in the Victims of Crime Partnership campaign during the last 18
months. It was not possible for all schools to attend the seminar, but we were
pleased that we had a good representation of
Schools that joined the seminar
were:
- Burley St. Matthias Primary School
- St. Matthew’s C of E Primary School
We would like to give our thanks
to the schools that joined us for the day, and especially to all the young
people who were a credit to the schools and have helped us tremendously.
Key Opinions
Throughout the seminar, young
people were being asked their opinions about everything – from whether they
likes the chips and bean (sorry all you healthy schools…but they did) through
to what they thought of the style of the delivery of the workshops. Our thanks
to the workshop deliverers for putting themselves in the firing line, but it
was worth it as the feedback was positive.
The key points the young people
made were…..
This has enabled the Victims of
Crime Partnership to produce guidance for both schools and agencies visiting
schools. So here are the top 5 DOs, and the Top 5 DON’Ts.
DO
DON’T
Talking Back
The seminar offered young people
and adults the opportunity to try out the Talking Back software.
The Talking Back CD-ROMs are
designed as a simple way to engage with young people and gain their
understanding and awareness on a variety of issues. The first campaign is
“Talking Rights”, exploring children and young people’s knowledge of their
rights as individuals.
The CD –
ROM collects basic monitoring information about each person taking part in
“Talking Rights”. This information is
anonymous but can be used to compare opinions and understanding of children
across different age ranges and different areas of the city.
The
Crew feature in all five scenes, which are targeted toward the 5 – 13 age
range. The “Participation Project”
devised the questions and co-ordinated the “Drama Crew’s” involvement in
producing the sound effects and voice over’s. Although the animation will
remain the same, the questions and voice over’s will change with each
campaign. The drama crew will continue
to be involved with Talking Back and the next campaign, as they really enjoyed
going into a recording studio and making the crew characters their own.
The CD-
ROM has been installed on several lap tops and a desktop PC. This will enable project workers to take the
“Talking Rights” CD-ROM out across the city i.e. into schools, at public events
or out in the community. And therefore
reach a wide range of young people and gain a representative understanding of
young people’s knowledge of their rights.
Young
people will be assisted by a trained project worker when taking part in the
Talking Rights CD-ROM. They will also be
given an information pack containing “The Convention on the Rights of a Child”
which is currently being interpreted by the “Talking Right Crew” into child
friendly language. They will also have
the opportunity to join the crew and hear about all the activities that take
place across
Useful Contacts;
Call Jo at The Project on (0113)
3070905 if you want to find out more about “Talking Rights”. Call Jo if you may
be interested in piloting the consultation tool with a group of young people.
Call
Rob Pratt at RPA on (01943) 604489 if you are interested in developing a
similar consultation tool. You can also
involve young people in its creation, thus giving them the opportunity to learn
new skills and gain a sense of achievement.
Agencies
A useful feature of the seminar
was that it once again brought schools and the agencies supporting schools
together. It is always a bonus when agencies have a chance to discuss their
services with schools, and schools can discuss their needs with agencies (“more
of this” we can hear you cry!).
Agencies that were at the seminar
(with contact details) are as follows: