Workshops for Mainstream Schools

Anti-Bullying:: Transition:: Other Workshops

ANTI-BULLYING WORKSHOPS

We ran Anti-Bullying Workshop Days at many different schools this year, many of which were funded by the Somerset Children's Fund, for whom Children's World has become a "preferred provider".

These Workshop Days can be adapted for children in Years 4 to 9, and we have created a video entitled "The Bully and the Victim", which can be used in classrooms, after our visit, as a discussion starter.

Each morning consists of two 90-minute Drama and Discussion workshops for a group of 30 students, in which they prepare a movement piece on to specially composed music on "Bullying in the Playground". In the afternoon the morning students perform this piece to an audience of the whole Year Group (up to 200) and this is then followed by a lively debate for all.

"Somerset Children's Fund has been pleased to work with Children's World on several occasions over the last year, bringing Anti-Bullying Workshops into schools and other settings. They have without fail, been very well received by the agencies and participants alike. They have always been very professional, working well with the host organisation. They offer good value for money, bring skills, knowledge & enthusiasm, and provide imaginative and stimulating input on a variety of issues including the thing which is of such great importance to children, young people and their families....Bullying.

But, above all the members of Children's World are able to communicate effectively and meaningfully with children and young people, to such an extent that the children have great fun, really do participate in the action and yet are seemingly unaware that what is going on is an Anti-Bullying Workshop.

We recommend them without reserve."

Programme Manager, Somerset Children's Fund

TRANSITION WORKSHOPS

We have been very interested in helping children with the process of Transition for several years now, as we believe children are often not well enough prepared for change, and that their development in their new surroundings can suffer. This is the third year that we have been commissioned to run Transition Workshops for the Street Federation of Schools, and this year we worked with all 240 x Year 6 feeder school pupils who were going to move up to Crispin Secondary School in September.

This year we considerably expanded the Transition Project, with Children's World meeting each child for a pre-meeting, a full Workshop Day and a follow-up session. We paid particular attention to those children with special needs or social needs of any kind that might make their transition harder. We are deeply grateful to the Senco of Crispin School who decided the formation of the Tutor Groups for September far earlier than usual, which enabled us to work with the pupils in the second half of the summer term in what would be their September Tutor Groups. This was a great success, and meant that when they progressed to Crispin in September 2004, they already knew and were comfortable with the members of their Tutor Group. We hope to continue developing our Transition Workshops, but this will depend on funding becoming available specifically for this purpose, as our current source of funding has dried up.

OTHER MAINSTREAM WORKSHOPS

These included Inclusion Days, Team Challenge Days and some very specific Transition Workshops for children with behavioural difficulties. We are delighted that more and more we are being commissioned to undertake workshops for schools when they have specific problem-areas they want addressed - for example, we will shortly be undertaking a Gender Workshop at a local school. We feel that our team leaders now have so many years of experience under their belts and can communicate so well with children and young people that they can use the many different techniques and exercises they have developed over the years to address almost any problem area. We look forward to developing Problem-Solving Workshops even further in the coming years. The members of Children's World work so well with our pupils and can communicate really effectively and meaningfully with them, enabling them to voice their worries and work at solving them.

"The Transition Workshops were tremendous, and we are really looking forward to your Consultancy Workshops and Inclusion Workshops. We have the utmost confidence in Children's World, and look forward to a continuing relationship."

Head Teacher, Brookside Primary School, Street.