Introduction

Prestbury St Mary's is an Infants and Junior School situated in the Prestbury area of Cheltenham. Although they are separate Schools, they are located next to each other and have a joint Executive Headteacher Mr Matt Fletcher.

Both Schools are Church of England mainstream state funded. Characteristics are as follows:

 
Infants School  

179 pupils
Mixed gender

Junior School

239 pupils
Mixed gender

The pilot was run over a condensed 4-month period from September 2018 to January 2019.

The successful launch of the Streetwise365 Secondary Schools Personal Safety Programme was preceded by an in-depth pilot study at Burford School. This pilot provided a platform through which we could inform, shape & evaluate the content of the Programme. Making it ‘fit for purpose'. With this same reasoning we embarked on the Streetwise365 Primary School Personal Safety Programme at St Mary's, Prestbury.

 

 

What was involved in the Pilot?

Our aim of the pilot programme was to include as many teachers, parents and students as possible.

Year 2s: Personal Safety Lesson Plan: Clever Never Goes (CNGs)

Over two lessons the Year 2 classes were introduced to ‘Clever Never Goes'. CNGs is the new alternative message to ‘stranger danger'. Evidence tells us that the stranger danger message is outdated and confusing for young children. CNGs is a concept created by a charity called ‘Children against Abduction' and it is being introduced into Schools through many of the national safeguarding boards.

CNGs is a likeable robot who empowers the children to make  intelligent choices with respect to their personal safety. Clever focuses on the moment that a person asks them to ‘go somewhere' and empowers the children with the skills to spot potential danger.

This is an interactive lesson that gets the children looking at scenarios to test their newly acquired skills. Clever moves the children beyond their fears into intelligent decision making.

Year 3s: Personal Safety Workshop

This workshop was delivered to the two Year 3 classes by the Streetwise365 team. This interactive workshop covered the following areas:

  • Introduction: Making safe choices.
  • How to measure risk and the danger scale.
  • A scenario around losing your grown ups whilst out shopping and deciding where are the safe places to ask for help?
  • Importance of knowing your grown ups mobile number which gives a bridge to safety.
  • Managing fears and emotions if they become lost.
  • Clever Never Goes (CNGs).
  • A scenario dealing with a person who asks them to go somewhere. This allowed the children to practice and develop their newly acquired skills.

Year 6s: Personal Safety Workshop.

This workshop was delivered by the Streeetwise365 team to the two Year 6 classes. This interactive workshop looked at personal safety skills in preparation for the Secondary transition. The workshop covered the following area:

  • Introduction: Clarification that good personal safety skills are a life skill.
  • Scenario work: A personal safety challenge was set for the students. During the workshop they developed the required skills to make safe choices.
  • The consequences of someone's personal safety being compromised were examined.
  • The role that ‘focus locks' play in taking away situational awareness.
  • The study of fear and emotions as they relate to a personal safety situation.

Parents: Personal Safety Workshop

This interactive workshop was delivered by the Streetwise365 team to the parents at the Junior School. Called ‘Protecting the Gift,' it's aim was to inform and educate parents with respect to keeping their children safe. The emphasis was to empower the children, through the parents. The workshop covered the following areas:

  • Introduction and re-frame for the parents with respect to personal safety.
  • Facts & figures.
  • The Good Childhood Report: A study into child happiness and the central role that personal safety plays.
  • We examined the changing risks being faced by young people today because of the internet and social media. Acknowledging that these risks could only be effectively dealt with by empowering our children, not greater school and parental controls.
  • The importance of teaching children the Personal Safety 3 D's which are Detect, Defuse and Defend.
  • Overview of Clever Never Goes (CNGs) and the important messages that he carries both for younger and older children.

Key skills that parents need to employ to support their children in being safe:

  • Open line of communications.
  • Safety nets.
  • Focus locks.
  • Where to go for help.
  • Assertive body language.
  • The final section examined the law and how it relates to personal safety.

Teacher/Staff Personal Safety Workshop

Once again this was an interactive workshop designed to up skill and empower all School staff to deal effectively & appropriately with a School related personal safety issue. The theme was ‘an intruder on site'. This was a relevant topic as a couple of Schools in the locality had recently encountered this very issue.

The workshop covered the following areas:

  • Introduction and reframe with respect to personal safety. What do we mean when we take appropriate actions to move us to safety? Personal safety was clearly defined in an empowering manner.
  • Scenario: Staff were set the challenge of acquiring the necessary skills during the workshop to deal appropriately with an intruder on their school grounds.
  • Understanding the equation (OMDA loop) in a confrontation.
  • The ‘Bad guy' was defined and evaluated.
  • The acquisition of the relevant skills including choice speech, body language and practical skills.
  • Understanding indignation, the fuel of self-defence.
  • Fear and emotional management skills.
  • The legal framework as it applies to self-defence and personal safety.

 

 

The Ambassador Programme: An Inclusion Programme for Primary Schools

Engaging ‘Hard to Reach' Students

Engaging ‘Hard to Reach' Students

The Ambassador Programme has been developed to engage with the ‘hard to reach' students within a School setting. To create inclusion and to give these students a sense of worth and positive acknowledgment.

Through the vehicle of personal safety students are taught the most up to date information & practices. This tends to be well received by the students, as every child likes to think of themselves as streetwise.

Students then take these new found personal safety skills and combine them with coaching skills that enable them to transfer this knowledge to others.

Lastly, but most importantly these students create a personal safety workshop for the younger students. This workshop is developed, practiced and then delivered in an interactive manner to younger students in the School setting. At Prestbury over 60 Year 2 students experienced this workshop.

Who was Included and the 1st Meeting

The School highlighted 8 Year 5 students who would benefit from the Ambassador Programme. But would they qualify? The students were interviewed to see if they were committed and motivated to become a part of the programme.

A contract was agreed and signed which covered such areas as:

  • Attendance.
  • Commitment.
  • Behaviour.

 

Ownership

For the Programme to be successful there needed to be ‘buy-in' and ownership from the students. This was achieved by implementing the following:

  • The students signed a contract which clearly laid out the Schools and students' commitment.
  • The parents were included and permission gained for their child to participate.
  • The students were taken from their normal lessons to undertake all aspects of the Programme. This made the students' feel privileged.
  • Streetwise365 T-shirts were designed and created by the students and sent off to the printers.
  • Funding applications were written and delivered to the Head Teacher and the subject leader at the Infant School.

 

 

Areas of the Programme

  • Personal Safety: Theory
  • Coaching Skills: Theory & Practical
  • The Year 2 Personal Safety Workshop: Practical
  • Personal Safety
  • Theory

The students worked from prepared lesson plans and gained the necessary personal safety knowledge & understanding. They collected their work in exercise books and covered such areas as:

  • Definition of personal safety.
  • Situational awareness.
  • How to defuse difficult situations.
  • Clever Never Goes.
  • Coaching Skills
  • Theory & Practical

Here the students were taught the more practical coaching skills needed for the Programme. This section contained a more interactive and practical approach and covered such areas such as:

  • Use of voice.
  • Positioning.
  • Organisation.
  • Attributes of a good coach.

The Personal Safety Workshop

This is where the Programme really came alive with the students creating the Year 2 personal safety workshop. This involved testing and refining and numerous rehearsals.

The Streetwise/teacher created the script (words) behind the workshop. A script that many of the students internalised and learnt off by heart.

The Big Day: Year 2 Workshop Delivery

After many weeks of preparation and practice the big day arrived. The students were appropriately nervous but managed their fears and emotions fantastically well. The workshop was delivered to two separate Year 2 classes. Both workshops were great but the 2nd workshop had a cleaner and more professional feel to it. The workshop was well received by the both the students and the teachers.

Important Note

These ‘hard to reach' students produced a session that the high achieving young leaders at the school would have been proud of.

The Celebration Assembly

After all the hard work a celebration assembly was held in honour of the Year 5 students. The assembly played the Year 5s favourite motivational video from Admiral H McRaven. Their work and successes were celebrated in a short PowerPoint presentation. At the end of the assembly the Head Teacher awarded the students with their certificates of achievement and their Streetwise365 T-shirts.

 

 

Benefits

Fully Integrated Personal Safety Programme

  • Whole School Approach
  • Positive Engagement of ‘Hard to Reach' students
  • We were able to deliver an integrated Programme across the following Year groups: 2,3,5 and 6

The Programme was delivered across the School structures.

  • Teachers.
  • Staff.
  • Parents.
  • Students.

There was total engagement for eight Year 5 students who often struggle to interact positively within the usual school structures.

The eight ‘hard to reach' students were able to examine their own behaviour with respect to appropriate choices and the role that ego plays in decision-making.

The Year 5 students mentored the Year 2s through the personal safety workshop.