What we do
Primary
In primary schools, Charlene delivers More Than a Face assemblies and Key Stage 2 author workshops over the course of a day following the publication of her best selling book ‘Our Altered Life’ which explains her journey with Oliver and Harry.
The day starts with an introduction to Charlene’s journey, the book and the reasons for establishing the charity. Pupils will be educated on facial differences, touched by the reality of an altered life and inspired by a boy who is just like them. The content of the assembly meets many of the Ofsted requirements for the spiritual, moral, social & cultural development of pupils.
During the author workshops, Charlene draws parallels between writing her own book and pupils creating their own writing including the importance of an effective plan, self assessment, peer assessment, editing, acting on feedback and illustrations.
Year 3 and 4 will be guided through a task on finding and using high level descriptive vocabulary. Years 5 and 6 will work on creating the plan of a story with a twist!
Pupils will be invited to design a poster showing the things that make them unique. A winner will be selected from each year group to receive a £10 amazon voucher. You can see these art works on the Gallery page.
Feedback from the sessions has been incredibly positive both from staff and pupils who have learned a lot about both facial differences and the importance of not judging people based on appearances.
Secondary
For secondary schools Charlene delivers an honest, informative and thought provoking ‘More Than a Face’ assembly aimed at raising awareness and promoting acceptance of facial differences, specifically tailored to suit the older students.
The assembly covers
- The physiology of facial recognition and why it’s natural to feel startled
- Perceptions of facial differences through History and in society
- The difference between congenital and acquired facial difference
- The feelings of those who have facial difference
- Strategies to treat those with a facial difference positively
- Charlene’s experiences with her son Harry who has congenital facial difference
- The abuse they have received online and her hopes for Harry and his future
- Questions and Answers session
An assembly lasts approx. 45 minutes.
As part of informing the charity work and supporting applications for charity funding students are asked to complete a very quick anonymous questionnaire before and after the programme (will take less than 5 minutes) Questions are emailed to the school to be completed before the assembly and the second set of questions can be forwarded on. These are very important to the future and development of the charity and support in this is much appreciated.
Feedback from staff and students has been fantastic with a significant percentage of students reporting that they have a better understanding and view of those with facial differences after the assembly.
Staff have also said that they feel the message of More Than a Face is also relevant outside of facial difference in terms of the interactions between peers particularly over social media.
Please check out our testimonial pages to read the feedback from students and staff.