Formulario de búsqueda

Ask an Advisor Answers

Question:
I would like to make it mandatory for all schools in the UK to educate their students on knife crime. The impact it has, the consequences, the statistics, the victims of knife crimes too. So how would i go about enforcing this topic to be taught in the suitable subjects?
Thank you
Answer:

   
      You have set a big agenda for yourself! Knife crime is surely an important topic, but aiming to  establish a mandatory curriculum in all public schools in the U.K. seems (to this U.S. observer) like an enormous task.  
     Which is not to say it couldn’t or shouldn’t be done.  We know little about knife crime education in Britain; but in your place we might begin by learning the status of current educational programs. For example, what knife crime education programs exist now? In how many schools, and where? In what grades? What is the actual curriculum content? And what is known about the effectiveness of such education in preventing later crimes? 
       Knowing the best available factual answers to these questions will help you decide your next steps. Those steps could include, as you suggest, figuring out where in existing school curricula your ideas might best fit.  They might also include designing a pilot program, or collecting data on existing programs or engaging in advocacy work. Or all those things; or other things. It will help you to put them together in the form of an overall action plan, 
       And the chances are your work will be more impactful if you join with other like-minded colleagues. This will help not only in dividing the work (which could potentially be considerable), but will also expose you to others’ ideas and thinking -- not to mention that often it’s simply more fun to work together, 
        Also, as you proceed, you may benefit  from consulting many of the resource materials in the Community Tool Box (especially those on planning, and on starting an intervention; see the Table of Contents). Putting all these steps together, you will be on your way to making measurable and meaningful progress on this significant issue.    
     We hope these starting thoughts might be helpful to you. Thank you for writing to us, and all best wishes for success.  

Question Date: Dom, 08/07/2022