Student Voice – HOPE BACK Workshop 28th February 2023

On Tuesday we accompanied 6 motivated students to a whole day workshop organised by Kent Police Violence Reduction Unit in Ashford.  

The aim was to bring young people together to explore and develop innovative solutions to societal challenges that are the key causes of serious violence.

The event was hosted and led by young people and included presentations, a panel, a keynote speaker, facilitated workshops to explore key themes and an opportunity to provide feedback and questions to decision makers.

Our students had the opportunity to collaboratively reflect, work and devise solutions, with other 100 young people from Kent & Medway,  on a range of issues ranging from:

Community Safety

Racism & Division

During the day they met with Paul Canoville, the 1st ever black player for Chelsea, and to ask him about his experiences.

Our students joined in enthusiastically and were amongst one of the two winning teams on the day! This is, in their words, their feedback:

“Our topic was inequality and equality and we chose to expand on female rights and how we would combat discrimination and violence against women. Our plan is to increase awareness about abuse and against women in society, including sexual assault, by making it a compulsory part of PSHE. We proposed to run workshops to educate young impressionable minds and to help teachers on how to have these difficult conversations with children. We want people to understand that no one should be a victim of abuse and violence, in any form, and we would especially like consent to be discussed more openly. 

At the end of our presentation, a member of our group, D5, performed a rap that he wrote to encourage young men, like himself, to reflect about their relationships with women and encourage them to be respectful. We are very proud to have been part of the winning team and look forward to being contacted by the Kent Police VRU to put our ideas into practice”. 

Isla, Ellie, Angie, Rachael, Crystal, Temi.

Well done to our students – they were a credit to their parents and the whole school community.

Mrs N. Lawrence – Assistant Headteacher for Key Stage 3 – Student Voice & EDI Lead

Mrs C. Cakebread – Head of Department for Geography