News
Alcohol awareness workshops for pupils
09/03/2010 14:58:00
ALL P7 and S1 pupils in Orkney are taking part in drama workshops with Scottish Youth Theatre to learn about the perils of alcohol abuse.
The Wise Choices workshops started this week and will run until March 19.
The initiative is a team effort between OIC's education and leisure services, in partnership with Orkney Alcohol and Drugs Partnership and Scottish Youth Theatre.
Chris Giles, Orkney Islands Council's principal teacher of expressive
arts, said: "Alcohol awareness is an important message for our young
people.
"We wanted to address the issue in a way that would engage the young
people and make them actively think about the impact that alcohol abuse
can have on our families and communities.
"What better way than to use drama to enable them to explore the many
aspects of this critical subject in a relaxed and fun environment."
Two of Scottish Youth Theatre's tutors, Steven Leach and Katriona
Wilson, are working with teachers and pupils over the next two weeks.
Each day mixes groups of P7 and S1 pupils together for a series of
workshops and performances.
Orkney Today went to Stromness Academy on Tuesday to find out more.
Bea Watson, a first year pupil at the academy, said: "Today we've been
learning about how drugs and alcohol effect you and can cause different
emotions. They effect how you look and how you think. It's serious
because people can hurt themselves."
Commenting on a role play exercise where pupils had to react to a drunk
person Matthew Rendall, a primary seven pupil at Stromness, said: "We
learned about how serious alcohol is and what it can do to your body.
It made you stop and think how you would act if you were drunk."
Both pupils said that they were enjoying the day's activities which is something that the tutors place great emphasis on.
Tutor Steven said: "We hope to look at influences and opinions
surrounding alcohol issues and encourage the kids to talk about it in a
fun environment. We also look at the way alcohol works on the body and
the negative consequences it can have. We were at Kirkwall Grammar
yesterday and the feedback from the pupils has been good. I think
they're enjoying it."
He continued: "It is different from a class environment where, although
the kids can understand the facts and figures, they don't process it as
well."
Tutor Katriona added: "It's about getting the kids to develop their own
ideas and equipping them with the basic skills to make informed choices.
"There's certainly a constant buzz about the workshops today. Sometimes
the more abstract we make the activities, the more the kids enjoy them."
The organisers and tutors will certainly be busy over the next couple
of weeks as every school in Orkney has opted to participate. Chris
Giles explained they had hoped to hold a workshop in the isles but in
reality this was not practical. Instead, pupils from the isles are
participating in the workshops held in Mainland schools.
He was also keen to point out that, in order to build on what the
pupils learned in the workshops, the project would be ongoing and
complement alcohol awareness work being delivered by other agencies in
Orkney: "Sustainability is a crucial element of the this project," he
said.
"Wise Choices is not simply a two-week initiative, but will be
developed by drama and class teachers across Orkney in the coming
months to ensure that as many of our young people as possible can learn
the message about Wise Choices."
Commenting on the project, Scottish Youth Theatre's associate director,
Fraser MacLeod, said: "An important part of Scottish Youth Theatre's
work is to partner a variety of organisations and use drama to help
explore issues.
"Young people are fantastically creative and our aim in all our
collaborations is to harness this creativity. Through a series of
workshops and performances the Orkney pupils will explore the impact of
alcohol abuse. We hope they will then apply what they have learned in
the workshops to make wise choices in their daily lives."