Prison Me! No-Way!
On Friday 26th June Selby High School was once again fortunate enough to be able to welcome the Prison Me No Way team to deliver a Crime and Safety Awareness Day to all our Year 9 students. Prison Me No Way is a national educational charity with a core aim of raising awareness among young people about the causes, consequences and penalties of crime. The event, which is now in its fifth year of running, saw part of the school turned into HM Prison Selby and all students in the year group were assigned to a particular “wing” for the duration of the day.
After the launch event in the Main Hall, students then moved into the workshop sessions which were delivered by serving and retired prison officers, as well various outside agencies. The workshops included, Choices - serving prisoners who were coming towards the end of their sentences gave an insight into real prison life, Northern Powergrid - educating young people about the dangers of live electricity, a furnished life-size replica prison cell to provide an authentic experience, Fire and Police Service presentations, Alcoholics Anonymous and Electronic Monitoring Services.
The workshop that evoked the greatest emotion from students was the discussion session from the serving prisoner. The insight he provided students with of what prison is really like, how he had made the wrong choices and how his prison experiences had affected his life and that of his family was a powerful and thought provoking message.
The Prison Me No Way team were immensely impressed with the level of participation and engagement of all our students throughout the day and noted in particular that their discussion and questions showed real thought, consideration and maturity to the different topics covered in each of the workshops. There was an electric atmosphere and a positive learning experience was had by all our students who commented both on the day and in the closing session how much they had enjoyed the sessions and importantly how much they had learnt from it.
A huge thank you to our workshop facilitators on the day and to the Prison Me No Way Team for once again providing our students with this excellent opportunity. We look forward to welcoming them back to our school next year!
Dr Paul O’Gorman
Curriculum Area Leader - PSHEE & C
