School events

Cunningsburgh Primary School P6/7 class was tasked to create a debate about Artificial Intelligence and the pro’s and con’s of the fast developing tool.

The purpose of the excercise was to consider all aspects of AI, whether its the pro or con side, can still successfully argue the case for the other side.

A week before the Public Protection team visited, P7 pupils have split into two teams, conducted a thorough research and worked on their presentation on the negative and positive aspects of AI.

On 30 April, members of the Shetland Public Protection Team visited the class to hear the debate and engage in further discussions. The class has done an amazing job preparing for the day and participated in some interesting dicussions.

"AI is smart and it has good and bad points. It can be both Helpful and a hindrance. "

In June 2025, Sandra Summers, Lead Officer of SPPC has visited Whitness Primary school to hear their AI debate. P7 pupils have been split into 2 groups to do research on the useful or harmful sides of AI and delivered a fantastic summary of the topic. The debate has started some in-depth conversations with a rebuttal at the end, with P6 pupils voting against AI use.

Pupils who participated in debate said they felt "extremely interested in the topic", "It was so good to listen to facts/opinions" and "Adrenalin listening to the debate"

When asked pupils what they can take away from debate, pupils said: "The importance of engagement when others are speaking/listening skills/ responses (including good posture!)" and "We want to share our opinions/ things we learned with others"

The SPPC team visited Sandwick Primary School on 8 June and delivered a wellbeing session to the Primary 4/5 class on maintaining a healthy balance between online and offline activities. As part of the session, pupils were invited to write or draw how they might feel after spending too much time on a screen, identify activities they could do instead of using screens, and consider what they could teach their families about healthy screen time habits.

After the break, the Primary 6/7 class took part in a session exploring the positive and negative impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Pupils discussed what AI can do, including repeating information, suggesting content, and responding quickly and confidently. They also considered the limitations of AI, noting that it cannot understand emotions, know what is best for an individual, care about people's safety, or take responsibility for decisions.

"Thank you for the session today – the pupils have been talking about it all day!"

1. Ask the awkward - conversation starters about online life
2. Layer up for online safety - step by step guide on safety settings from Network-Device-Apps
3. Talking to your Child about staying safe online - helping children staying safe online
4. 8 steps to support your child to be safer online - secondary school helpsheet
5. Keeping children safe online- guide for parents, carers and guardians on topic as parental controls, most common apps and how they work, and harm prevention.

On 3 September 2025, SPPC organised a “Virtually Safe, Virtually Sound” event in Sandwick Junior High School, attended by pupils from S1 to S4. The five workshops delivered were as follows:

1. CEOP - a comprehensive session on online safety, apps, bullying, grooming, AI, peer pressure, the law, how to spot risks and where to get help.
2. Online Sexual Violence - Explores examples of online sexual violence, especially on social media used by young people. Includes interactive activities asking pupils whether certain behaviours or language are acceptable, and shows how minor acts can escalate into more serious violence.
3. Caring for your Mind in a Digital World - Promotes self-care through discussions on online stress and its effects. Practitioners lead brief wellbeing conversations and share tools and resources to support young people's mental health.
4. Digital Abuse and Relationships - explores the signs and impact of digital abuse among young people. Delivered by specialist practitioners, it discusses how technology and social media can be misused in relationships to control and intimidate.
5. Wellbeing - Raises the awareness of how everyone’s brains work and how this directly affects our wellbeing. Understanding and learning things we can do to help make our wellbeing better.

For more information, you can get in touch with [email protected] or click on the below websites:

• Report&remove content: Internet Watch Foundation
• conversation starters for parents: ask the awkward
• How to keep your child safe online: Ceop education
• Guide for parents/carers around set ups: Cyberfraudhub.org
• I am me Learning platform: I am me

Pupils have said:

“learned to be mindful about normalised misogyny”

“learned about a good technique to understand my feelings”

“don’t add strangers”

“people’s feelings matter”

We delivered a full day of #VSVS workshops in Brae to pupils across S1–S6.

In addition to the workshops that were delivered in Sandwick we introduced a new workshop in Brae focused on Hate Crime.

The session explored questions such as 'what fairness means to pupils' and 'how people may differ from one another'.

Pupils watched this video, and were then introduced of the 7 characteristics of Hate Crime.

Young people had the opportunity to work in groups on different hate crime scenarios to consider:

• what was happening?
• how might the victim feel?
• who/what is making them feel that way?
• what could a bystander do?
• what are safe ways to respond?

At the end of the session, students learned about the potential consequences of hate crimes and watched a final video titled: If someone can’t change themselves in 30 seconds or less.

If you are interested to learn more on hate crimes, go on to: Hate Crime - Safer.scot

Our #VSVS event at Anderson High School is an annual event involving all S1 pupils.

Watch the video below to learn more about the workshops and what they cover.

On 17 June 2026, we visited Aith Junior High School to deliver four workshops to pupils, ranging from transitioning P7 students through to Secondary 4.

We delivered the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) workshop, which is a mandatory requirement, along with three new workshops selected by the school management team and the Pupil Council to meet the interests and needs of their students.

• Online Misogyny workshop - This session explores how children’s views on gender and relationships are shaped by family, peers, media, and online influencers. Pupils are encouraged to think critically about these messages and examine how harmful content can promote misogyny and unhealthy attitudes. It also looks at the real-world impacts, such as gender-based violence, body image issues, and mental health, while highlighting available support
• Anti-Bullying Theater Based workshop - Physical theatre workshop building relationships and connections and exploring the theme of ‘anti-bullying’ in a safe, non-judgemental way. The workshop explores connections and disconnections as well as bystanders theory
• Debate on social media ban for all under 16's in the UK - Pupils explored arguments both for and against a proposed social media ban for all under-16s in the UK. Working in groups, ideas are developed and presented through posters representing each viewpoint

  The session ends with a wider discussion around:

  • Are there safer ways for young people to use social media?
  • Should parents and schools have more responsibility instead of a ban?
  • Would a ban actually stop young people use social media?

The collage below was created using quotes provided by the young people and formed part of their debate poster.