In collaboration with Jose Aguiar, prison educator, the Anne Frank Trust have created a brand new OCN-accredited course specifically for offender learning.

The OCN course – Understanding Diversity within Society – was produced to be delivered alongside the Anne Frank Prison Project. This course helps teachers to work with students to explore the complexity of living within a diverse society. The course addresses the positive aspects of diversity in society but also covers problems such as discrimination and persecution.

Understanding Diversity within Society was piloted at Feltham YOI and deemed a great success. As well as this course the Trust have created two other modules: Speaking and Listening, and Prejudice and Discrimination.

The OCN courses are offered at four differentiated levels, in order to address different learning needs in the classroom, and to reach students with varying literacy levels. The courses have been designed to enable students to participate actively in sessions and to contribute from their own experiences.

There is also an ESOL introductory course. As ESOL learners make progress with their English language skills, they learn about diversity issues in the UK. The course has been translated into six different languages, French; Italian; Portuguese; Polish; Romanian and Spanish.

The courses use the power of Anne Frank’s diary to teach people about mutual respect and appreciating each other’s differences to create a better society for everyone.

The aim of the course is to promote positive attitudes, particularly towards ethnicity, religion and culture. Through education and learning about the tragedies of the past we aim to empower inmates to reject all forms of bigotry, prejudice and intolerance in their daily lives. Our diversity is something to be proud of but it can only be safeguarded if we all take a stance against racism and discrimination of any kind and in any form.

Our OCN learners will hopefully leave with this message.