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
"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
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Confidentiality: anxiety wasn’t realised All of them agreed that being on the programme was “fun” because their friends were there too.
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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”
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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
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
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Giving them small responsibilities around the school for which they can be proud and get publicly acknowledged.
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Sending a letter home for positive achievements
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Positive feedback from parents and teachers are important to consolidate change
If you would like to discuss our programme and its possible implementation in your school please contact us at
info@actforchange.org.uk