Information for Teachers

Why are the young people on the AFC Programme

All the Teachers described young people that were,

“disruptive of learning; disrespectful to staff; argumentative; distracting other students; being a focus for attention in the room and not allowing lessons to flow and continue”

They were concerned about antisocial behaviour inside school & evidence of antisocial behaviour outside of school including Gang / group culture.

There was a lack of empathy with this group of young people “don’t really think, ’what impact am I having on another person"

How did the AFC programme bring about change

Groupwork : "it was “good to be able to speak and hear others”

"Session made me feel like I can talk to, like show my feelings and my thoughts and talk about my thoughts (what I think about myself) to other people."

It seemed really important, for most of the young people, that they had friends in the programme.

All the young people bar one agreed that their relationships with their peers and their teachers had improved because they had had a chance to talk and listen to each other

Confidentiality: anxiety wasn’t realised All of them agreed that being on the programme was “fun” because their friends were there too.
Respect : ‘He (the facilitator) respected me so I respected him back’ “He’s trying to help you, and I liked the way he talks to you, he would show you respect”
Treated equally: they didn’t treat one of us more better than the other. They made us like work to be more closer to each other, to talk to each other about things that we wouldn’t talk about, like how their feelings and that

What were the positive outcomes of the programme

In terms of how they had changed themselves, most of the young people thought noticeable change had occurred in themselves and in their friends. These included

Behavioural change
Increased confidence
became more involved.
controlling their anger more.
Treating each other with more consideration.

In order to build on these positive changes we believe that the young people should be given opportunities to use these new skills. Suggestions such as

Giving them small responsibilities around the school for which they can be proud and get publicly acknowledged.
Sending a letter home for positive achievements
Positive feedback from parents and teachers are important to consolidate change