Our Anti-radicalisation module has taken us over a year to develop. Being such a sensitive topic we met with Prevention Officers several times to discuss the content of our module with them as there were many things we needed to consider. For example, where do we draw the boundary lines when educating young people about anti-radicalisation and terrorism? How do we ensure that we ourselves are not exposing or influencing the students?

On the news recently we heard that some teachers were refusing to “act as spies” while teaching and choosing not to have class debates on this topic. While we do not want to “spy” either, we do believe that addressing the issues around radicalisation are important and debating is a key part of finding out how young people think.

As a deaf trainer I seek to ensure that my sign language is very clear and all definitions and meanings of words are explained in ways that can be plainly understood. I think carefully about how to sign and explain particular terms with visual resources to aid this.

I delivered our first Prevent 2Be Safe workshop at a school for the deaf in London, to groups of students of varying ages and mixed abilities; some had extremely low language levels and many were unable to read written language so my method of providing an accessible deaf-friendly session had to cater for this. I had two hours with each group and we were able to debate and challenge ideas and understanding through role play. We discussed how there was a tendency amongst some deaf people to never question the trustworthiness of other deaf people and how this could expose them to grooming. I used visual activities and role play to provide examples and avoided wordy written information which is inaccessible to them.

It is extremely important that students are fully aware and understand the risks posed by extremism and there is a huge amount of work still to be done to support and inform deaf young people nationally. This is exactly why Deafax will continue to take the lead in delivering our Prevent 2Be Safe training – promoting awareness in a safe place will develop knowledge and understanding which in turn will enable students to challenge extremist beliefs.

Let us know what you think? E-mail us at info@deafax.org