Changing Faces is the UK’s leading charity for people with a scar, mark or condition – the charity works to support the visible difference community.

There is a professional learning resource which develops practitioner confidence outlining strategies and challenges when working with students with a visible difference.

Explore this resource

More than a million people in the UK have a visible difference – a mark, scar or condition that affects their appearance – including 86,000 children and young people of school age. With the number of students with a visible difference increasing in our schools, it’s vital that new teachers are given the confidence and resources to cope with the challenges this presents. It is important for all of us to be aware of our own implicit bias and reflect on our feelings and ideas about appearance and disfigurement. This pack aims to support practitioners to better understand the strategies and challenges when working with students with a visible difference.

Talking to pupils about visible difference is a key part of creating an inclusive learning environment for all pupils. These resources for primary and secondary schools will help practitioners support pupils to discuss and explore issues such as:

• respecting and valuing difference
• tackling appearance-related bullying
• the importance of treating everyone fairly and equally

Improvement questions

• How well do we ensure that all children feel safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included?
• How confident are education staff in tackling appearance related bullying?

Video

David's story

Downloads

There are two sets of resources, one for primary students and one for secondary. Each set of resources contains a teacher guide and slides for use in the classroom and assemblies. Both PDF and Powerpoint versions of the slides are available.

Powerpoint presentation: CLPL slides (11.6 MB)

PDF file: CLPL slides (2.1 MB)

PDF file: CLPL Tutor guide (143 KB)

Primary

Powerpoint presentation: Primary Lesson (6.1 MB)

Powerpoint presentation: Primary Assembly (10.9 MB)

PDF file: Primary Lesson (3.9 MB)

PDF file: Primary Assembly (2.4 MB)

PDF file: Primary Teacher Guide (800 KB)

Secondary

Powerpoint presentation: Secondary Lesson (5.8 MB)

Powerpoint presentation: Secondary Assembly (4.6 MB)

PDF file: Secondary Lesson (3.9 MB)

PDF file: Secondary Assembly (3.5 MB)

PDF file: Secondary Teacher Guide (255 KB)

Community learning and development

YouthLink Scotland and Changing Faces have developed new resources for youth workers and volunteers across Scotland to better support young people with visible differences and disfigurements.

Funded by The Robertson Trust and the National Lottery community fund in Scotland, the A World of Difference resources will support youth workers and volunteers to better understand and deliver workshops on visible difference to their groups and communities.

The resources support youth workers and volunteers talk about visible difference within their groups. Through greater awareness and understanding, groups and clubs can provide a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone.

By exploring visible difference, we can help to change the negative stereotypes often associated with looking different. Talking with young people about visible difference is a key part of creating an inclusive environment for all.

Videos

Youth work best practice

Unconscious bias

Downloads

PDF file: A World of Difference Workshop Guide (295KB)

PowerPoint presentation: A World of Difference Presentation (5.60MB)