Hard-hitting ‘gang’ drama supports school curriculum

A hard-hitting firearms awareness package is to be rolled out in Birmingham’s secondary schools as part of the city’s first coordinated education resource tackling gang issues. West Midlands Police is behind the innovative scheme designed to deglamorise the gun and knife carrying culture.

More than a dozen operational firearms officers are being trained to deliver the 90-minute presentations, which are aimed at year nine students and set out to teach young people how to manage risk and make informed decisions.

Acting Inspector Mick Woolley, firearms unit supervisor, said: “The importance of training officers to deliver this input is two-fold. It breaks down the barriers and integrates firearms officers with young people and their communities to raise awareness of the consequences of carrying a weapon, deglamorising gang and affiliated culture.

“This presentation will make young people aware that one poor choice around weapon carrying can have enormous consequences that will have an impact on the rest of their lives. This could be as simple as affecting their employment potential and travel opportunities or could lead to a confrontation with armed police, or, ultimately, the loss of their own or another’s life.”

The education resource will launch at Birmingham’s Vue cinema at Star City on November 15. The event will include the film premiere of My Life, My Choice, a 25-minute drama commissioned by Birmingham Reducing Gang Violence (BRGV). The film has been scripted by and stars young people from the city and is part of a teaching resource featuring lesson plans linked to the citizenship and personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum.

PC Alan Nevin, an offender manager and former Birmingham teacher, said: “I worked in two schools in inner city Birmingham which have a lot of external issues with families and locality. I saw that this has an impact on pupils’ educational development and started to understand how community issues can affect children.

“As a police officer, I feel that one of my roles is to assist teachers, which BRGV is aiming to do with this learning package. Working closely with schools gave us a real understanding of what teachers have to achieve within the curriculum and how they achieve it. The key learning objectives were then matched with the topic areas BRGV wanted to cover around ‘choices’, ensuring the lesson plans achieved our aims and are practical for teachers to use.

“My Life, My Choice marries up with the educational criteria set out in the PHSE and citizenship agenda. It is modern, tackles current issues and is the first project of its kind that is directed by young people for young people and gives them the opportunity, in a structured way, to explore what they want to improve in their communities.”

The storyline involves a young would-be rap artist – Nathan – who is drawn into the gang lifestyle by his friend’s older brother. Nathan is pressured into breaking into a house to steal a drugs haul but his introduction to crime ends in tragedy.