Streetwise Steps Forward: Empowering Students, Strengthening Skills

Streetwise visit to Manchester KD

Kicking off the new academic year, the Streetwise team travelled to Manchester to deliver our updated Antisemitism Workshop for sixth formers. Abi and Leah, alongside long-standing facilitator Dean, each led sessions at King David High School Manchester with Year 12 and 13 students. The programme is designed to empower students with the confidence and knowledge to recognise and navigate how Antisemitism may manifest in their next chapters. 

The workshop begins by introducing the IHRA definition as a tool for identifying antisemitism. Students then examine CST statistics and real-life examples from history to the present day, categorising Antisemitism into religious, racial, and modern forms. Finally, they engage with challenging scenarios that explore themes such as balancing conflicting identities, navigating confronting conversations with new people, and knowing where to seek support. Every session emphasises the importance of reporting incidents to CST.

Our monitoring and evaluation showed strong impact: over 85% of students at King David Manchester said the topic was extremely relevant to them, and more than 90% reported learning something new. One student reflected: “The workshop provided a sensitive space to address the emotional impact of the current war in Israel, while at the same time supporting pupils who might have faced overt or covert antisemitic comments.”

It was a pleasure visiting King David and we look forward to delivering more workshops soon!

Team Training

Over the course of September, Streetwise, alongside the wider Maccabi GB education team, have taken part in a range of training sessions. Some highlights included: Antisemitism & Incidents training from the CST, Digital Resilience training from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and a talk from the Faith & Belief Forum following the release of ‘Bursting the Bubble’, a piece of research on the state of Interfaith in the UK.

Each session provided the opportunity for our team to reflect on the work we do, whether that be the content we deliver or the way we approach different conversations. We look forward to more training opportunities throughout October.