Kingsway Park School stars enjoy red carpet role

Pupils from Kingsway Park High School guests of honour at their own film premiere at Odeon, Sandbrook Leisure Park

Pupils from Kingsway Park High School were treated to the full film star experience to a packed out screen premiering their film.

The pupils were the guests of honour at their own film premiere at Odeon, Sandbrook Leisure Park, where over 100 guests were treated to an exclusive screening, complete with popcorn.

The film, ‘Just Someone I Know’, was commissioned by Rochdale Council, with M6 Theatre working with the school on the production. They were challenged with developing a resource that tackled the topic of children missing in education.

Councillor Donna Martin, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “What a great occasion this has been, it was great to see so many people here to celebrate the hard work of these young people on such an important topic.”

Gail Hopper, director of children’s services for Rochdale Council, who opened the event, said: “Rochdale is innovative in its approach to tackling child sexual exploitation and working directly with young people to raise their awareness of how to spot the signs and report concerns; this is another excellent example of this. The young people have delivered a project that is another Rochdale success story that they should be very proud of. I am sure it will help others for generations to come and we hope will be used across Greater Manchester and beyond.”

Kingsway Park teachers have also developed a resource pack to accompany the film so that it can be used in any school to tackle the subject of children missing from education and wider child sexual exploitation (CSE).

The film and resource pack is available on the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board’s website:

www.rbscb.org/professionals/education-resource-packs/

Margaret Barbour, safeguarding lead at Kingsway Park School, was bowled over by the event: “It was an amazing event; the pupils were treated like film stars. I am so proud of how far they have come, I am sure this experience will live with them forever.”

At the event there were also short presentations from Martin Murphy, practice manager of the Sunrise Team, who explained the work the team are doing to tackle CSE and also to educate children and young people on spotting the signs and reporting CSE.

Rod Kippen from national charity RECLAIM also presented the Rochdale Girl’s Manifesto and explained the work they are doing with young people across Rochdale.

Parvez Qadir from M6 Theatre, who worked with the pupils on the film, said: “I can’t believe what we have all achieved. It has been a pleasure to see the reaction of everyone today at the film being on the big screen.

"The support from the Council, Kingsway School and Odeon has been astonishing.”