School workshops

At Spurway Training we have extensive experience of delivering talks and workshops for school groups. The sessions can be delivered as a lecture or with interactive exercises to really engage the pupils with the subject.  We offer three inputs for schools and youth services:

  1. An interactive double-period on the pressures of gender
  2. A 50 minute talk on refugees – their journeys and experiences in Scotland
  3. A workshop on refugees using an interactive ‘If you were a refugee, what would you do?’ resource, allowing pupils to make choices as they follow the journey of a refugee from Eritrea to Scotland

The pressures of gender

This is an interactive double-period workshop on the pressures young people can feel to conform to restrictive images of masculinity and femininity.  The usual audience is pupils in S2 and above.  The session’s overall aim is to help pupils become more aware of the various expectations associated with gender -especially those that can encourage harmful behaviour.

We begin by defining the difference between the biological term ‘sex’ and the socio-cultural term ‘gender’.  Images of masculinity and femininity are then discussed and we begin to see the pressures to conform to these images: encouragement for men to be strong, confident and unemotional, and for women to be attractive, nurturing and ‘girly’.  The session ends with a discussion around a scenario of a boy making a sexual comment about a passing girl.  The boys and girls in the class are encouraged to listen to each other’s perspectives, as we discuss how we can each respond to influence the behaviour of others.

Refugees in Scotland

Grounded in our 15 years of experience working with people seeking sanctuary is our presentation on ‘Refugees in Scotland’.  The 50 minute talk covers:

  • Which countries refugees usually come from, why people flee those countries, and how a minority manage to travel to the UK
  • The meanings of common immigration terminology like ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’
  • The living circumstances of refugees in Scotland and what pupils can do to help

We also offer classes using an interactive story, ‘If you were a refugee, what would you do?’, where students make choices that influence the narrative of one man’s escape from Eritrea to Scotland.

If you were a refugee what would you do?

We offer a workshop that focuses on an interactive story where pupils make their own choices throughout. The narrative develops empathy with refugees and the often impossible choices they face.

‘This is a tremendous resource and has been highly effective in our school.’
Gillian Ferguson, Depute Rector of Hutchessons Grammar

Website by Haiwyre