Campaign for Change!

Are you a student aged 11 to 19?
Got something to say but fed up with no one listening?
Now is your chance to Campaign for Change!

What is Campaign for Change?

ESSA currently offers Campaign for Change training for students. The training aims to support students like YOU to speak out about your life at school or college.

You can get help, support and advice to campaign about anything - from tree planting and eco-schools to staging a play about gun crime.

There are so many ways to Campaign for Change - it's up to you!

Real Talk

Real Talk is a training programme that ESSA has specifically designed to
ensure that all young people, and not just the most articulate, get a voice and a say in decision-making.

Funded by the Department for Education, the Real Talk project has enabled us to develop communications training which is specifically aimed at young people with a wide range of learning difficulties, physical disabilities, disruptive behaviour, and lack of self-confidence as well as those who are Not in Education, Employment or Training. The training enables young people to identify issues they feel strongly about and learn to communicate effectively with a range of people about these issues in order to create positive change.

We use a number of techniques to make the sessions as involving and effective as possible, for instance role-play, real-play, films and videos, drawing and physical activities. The course is designed to meet the needs of all types of sensory learners: (visual, audio, and kinesthetic) hence the variety of delivery methods.

The training programme is divided into two levels

The first level of the training consists of 6-8 one-hour sessions and covers the following topics:

1. What do you want to change?
2. Listening to be heard.
3. Body language to support your message.
4. Respect and dignity - keeping your cool
5. Confidence in speaking
6. Real Talk Overview

Level 2 aims to build the participant's confidence so that they can go out and train their peers. Giving young people with disruptive behaviour a chance to be in the teacher's shoes provides a unique opportunity for them and gives them a valuable insight into a different level of  responsibility and their own. It also increases their confidence and gives them a sense of achievement and pride in what they do.

Level 2 sessions cover the topics of:

1. Developing self-confidence
2. Being a good leader
3. Group dynamics
4. What to do with trouble
5. Understanding the Level 1 sessions



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