Your World Your Say Schools Conference

On Monday 29th March we attended the Your world Your Say schools conference at BAWA in South Gloucestershire. The event was attended by lots of organisations with the aim of empowering year 8 students to discuss local and global issues and take action in their own schools. We ran 4 half hour workshops in the morning with 50 students from schools all over Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

We had two new volunteers supporting the activities, Izzy and Huria and hopefully they’ll be working with us on more projects over the next few months. We ran the UNITY Flag and First Impressions activities which went down really well with students and teachers alike and we hope to have made some new links for project work with other schools in the future.

Here’s what the students learnt and enjoyed:

'You can't judge people by the way they look.'

'Don't judge a book by it's cover'

 'Everyone's different'

'I learnt about not judging people and giving people chances.'

'Very interactive'

'It helped me to think about myself'

'It was brilliant and I would love to do it again!'

What the teachers thought:

'There's a lot about my students I teach that I nevet get chance to ask/ know about.'

'Very good. Proof of the difficulties with identity.' 

'Friendly and interactive session.'

'Great workshop!'

What our peer educators thought:

"The session went great, I really enjoyed myself. The young people were really enjoyable to work with and Ina and Steph were really great." - Izzy, 17

"I learnt a lot of stuff during the session and enjoyed myself a lot." - Huria, 19

 

Why I Respect: Fairfield School DiversEC1ty event

Well we made it! We managed the impossible and completed the film in time to be screened at the Farfield School's DiversEC1ty event, so called as it is a celebration of the cultural diversity of EC1, the community surrounding Fairfield. 

It was a fantastic event with food from all over the world, a Somali fashion show, singing, drumming and activities. UNITY had our own stall showcasing all the photos and information from the Why I Respect project at the event which culminated in a screening of the film.

All the students were really pleased with what they had achived and were able to show off their work to their parents. It was a fantastic way to end the project on such and high and we thanked all the students who were involved with chocolate and certificates.

Why I Respect: Editing at the BBC

We spent the day editing at BBC Bristol with the Fairfield Students to get the film finished for the DiversEC1ty Event at their school next week. The students had the opportunity to work with professional editor Richard Lanciault and really enjoyed the chance to see all the equipment and decide on the look and feel of their finished piece. We’d like to give a big thank you to Richard for all his time and support on the project, without whom it wouldn’t have been possible!

Comments from the students:

'I enjoyed learning how to use final cut pro.'
'I really enjoyed going to the BBC and editing and watching our videos'