‘Wildfire’ Success
A few weeks ago, six Year 9 students took part in the Police Apprentice Sexting Prevention Campaign. The video ‘Wildfire’ was shortlisted by the Police to then use in a campaign. We were then invited down to Southampton to an awards evening where the six final teams had the videos shown in the auditorium of over 200 students, police officers and teachers. We also had to complete a presentation, where we had to explain our vision of the campaign, how we came up with the idea and why we thought that the video would appeal.
After some hot dogs and chips, we then went back into the auditorium where we watched a roadshow which will be rolled out to schools next year called “Is it worth it?”. The idea of the show is to showcase to other students about the dangers of sexting, but more importantly the effects and consequences of sending or receiving a ‘sext’.
They then announced the winning team and could not believe it was our concept that they liked best us and that we had won the competition! Our video was unique, not only was it an animation of images, but it also has a sign language section which made it more inclusive and could therefore be seen and understood by some of the more vulnerable young people in society. We were delighted and received a goody bag each and the school was given money to help promote internet safety in school.
Over the next year, we will now be working with Hampshire Constabulary to produce a professional campaign which will then be rolled out to all schools across the district as part of the Online Safety campaign. In the future, it is possible that if our campaign is successful in Hampshire then other police forces will adopt the campaign as well. An exciting year ahead!