Film-making used to steer pupils from poor life choices

DD8 Music have been working with police and primaries

An educational programme with primary school children in Kirriemuir aims “to help prevent a repeat of recent issues in the town in years to come”.

For the past couple of months DD8 Music have been working alongside the community police and the two primary schools in Kirriemuir on a project with members of the P7 classes to encourage sensible life decisions regarding drugs and alcohol.

The catalyst for this programme at Northmuir and Southmuir primaries was a “significant rise” in antisocial behaviour and offending in Kirriemuir, particularly within the 11-13 age groups.

Community police officer Paul Morgan said: “As a result of funding becoming available through government under the national Choices for Life programme, we put forward a funding bid to run a programme targeting the current P7 youngsters in Kirrie.

“We hoped this would have the effect of educating this age group, at what is a very transitional period of their lives, to help prevent a repeat of recent issues in the town in years to come.

“Having been successful in our funding bid, we then set about the delivery of a 10-week programme along with DD8 Music and Tayside Council on Alcohol (TCA) with the approval of both schools.

“The first phase of the training involved TCA and I delivering sessions on drug and alcohol awareness, peer pressure, the consequences of poor life decisions and how to make good choices.

“The second phase then involved the creation of short films by nine groups of pupils with support from DD8, Schedule D Productions and myself and local police officers.”

The project has ended up with each of the classes producing short films based around these themes.

Each of the nine short films will be shown to an audience of parents and pupils at Kirrie Town Hall on Friday.

The youngsters involved will be given the chance to introduce their films, each lasting about five minutes, and once that is completed, there will be a ‘cinema’ session where they can relax with popcorn and refreshments to watch an age-appropriate film.

While this film is playing, PC Morgan and a colleague from TCA will hold a stall in the Lesser Hall where parents can come and speak about drug and alcohol education and get any advice they wish to help them in the future.

We hoped this would have the effect of educating this age group, at what is a very transitional period of their lives. PAUL MORGAN

Picture: Kim Cessford. Community police officer Paul Morgan.