‘Skills to Resist Radicalisation’ aims to support schools to respond to the challenging issue of extremism and radicalisation in an age-appropriate way. It support s teachers to meet their responsibilities in relation to the Prevent Duty, which states that;
“Schools should provide a safe space in which children, young people and staff can understand the risks associated with terrorism and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge extremist arguments”.
Skills to Resist Radicalisation uses animations to present scenarios that classes can explore in safe ways by focusing on the characters that are depicted. It uses techniques from forum theatre to facilitate discussions and role plays that allow children to practice key critical thinking and communication skills particularly in relation to seeking support from adults.
Evaluation of the programme has indicated positive results with teachers telling us;
“The vocabulary exercises were really important. They provided the language that children needed to talk about the issues. I saw them become more confident using complex vocabulary”.
“The children were definitely more open and were able to talk about two different worlds; on the one hand the ‘this is right, this is wrong’ world of school and on the other the more morally ambiguous world outside of school”.
The detailed report is available here.
