Remake Educational (R.E.) is an outreach project introducing sixth form pupils to ex-offenders. It is an opportunity for both sides to come together to talk, share experiences, debate and learn.  

The project supports ex-offender learning, stimulates informed dialogue in schools about the justice system and enables pupils to gain an insight into the lives of young people from different backgrounds.  It is about breaking down barriers and helping pupils understand that ex-offenders are people wanting to change. 

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Tell Your Story is where the graduates from Project ReMake share their personal experiences of their own pain and struggle with pupils at schools.  This form of personal story telling is very powerful for formerly incarcerated people since it allows them to communicate emotionally with younger people in a safe non-judgemental environment and to answer questions put by pupils. 

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We have been assisted in this effort by St Paul’s Girls’ School where we have also introduced speakers from the prison network such as Governors and Resettlement Officers together with professionals working with prisons.

 

We have worked as part of our school's programme, we have created special projects involving ex-offenders and sixth form pupils.

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Harry Hammond, Former Senior Master at Radley College, wrote the following account of a recent seminar given at St Paul's Girls' School:

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"This was a fascinating educational experience: a huge amount was packed into an hour, which left me wanting to get more involved in the project. St Paul's Girls' school have been tremendous supporters of ReMake and the engagement of the girls, with excellent support from the staff, made the occasion rich and memorable. The conference was handled with great skill by Judge Kameel Khan who asked insightful and pertinent questions, as befits someone who is such an expert in the field. In the first half we heard of the experiences of Mahala McGaffie, who has been a Governor of Women's prisons and now works on various elements of the settlement of inmates, and Beverley Toone who, amongst other jobs, helps to coordinate businesses who employ ex offenders. We learnt that although the number of women in prison is much lower than that of men (approximately 4,000 as against 85,000 men) their needs are more complex: there is more trauma and more substance abuse, for example. For both men and women, a large number of inmates have previously been in care, but that number is higher for women. Beverley talked movingly about how easy it was for someone to fall just the wrong side of the line: no one wakes up expecting to commit a criminal act but a moment of recklessness - drunken behaviour, careless driving - can lead to a spell in prison. The point is that prisoners are not a separate class, they are people, just the same as anyone else."

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