It was acceptable in the 80’s: Alva Academy S3’s retro take on peer inspiration
23 July 2025
Members of our Going Forward team were delighted to recently support the work of an impressive group of S3 pupils from Alva Academy.
In Spring 2025, Fast Forward delivered a bank of four workshop sessions focusing on risk-taking behaviours with a small group of S3 pupils who were identified as potentially being vulnerable and at-risk. During the workshop sessions, group members quickly identified vaping as an issue that they were particularly interested in addressing.
Our young group members advised that they were keen to design and deliver a resource that would enable them to authentically highlight some of the factors that shape and influence the choices and decisions that they, and their peers, make when it comes to vaping.
After discussing and spotlighting vaping as an issue that they were really keen to address, the idea of designing and developing some photo case stories, in the style made popular by 1980’s teen magazines, was born!
The group was supported by Eilidh Bonar, photography student and Napier University, whose outstanding photography skills helped turn their exciting storyboards into some fantastic photo case stories!
As part of the resource development process, we gathered feedback from several of the groups members:
“I absolutely loved the workshop sessions and the photo sessions were great. The whole thing really boosted my confidence and I’d love to do something like the Fast Forward project again”
S3 pupil, Alva Academy
“My confidence grew, my knowledge got deeper and doing the whole photoshoot thing was brilliant. I’ve shown my friends the photo story and they loved it. I think they might be a wee bit jealous that I got to do it and they never!”
S3 pupil, Alva Academy
Not only was the feedback from our young group members really positive, Eilidh Abernethy, PSE Lead at Alva Academy, was delighted with the final resources and the positive impact that the sessions were able to deliver for the school and the group:
Supporting and guiding peer-led projects like this is fundamentally vital to the work that we do at Fast Forward. When young people take control of leading the conversation about the choices they make on risk-taking behaviours, the positive outcomes speak for themselves — fun, creative, confident, and genuinely impactful. Huge congratulations and thanks to the Eilidh Abernethy, PSE Lead, and the team at Alva Academy for their hard work and creativity. Want to find out more about how we support peer education across Scotland? Head to fastforward.org.uk to explore our programmes and resources.
