Post-lockdown, we need to talk about boundaries
After a tumultuous year, students transitioning from primary school to secondary school need additional support and space to learn about boundaries, consent and communication.
This summer, we designed a cross-curricular programme for Year 7s in collaboration with GROW and Totteridge Academy that aimed to increase peer-to-peer empathy.
Year 7s and 8s have faced multiple barriers to their education and social and emotional learning during the past 18 months. They’ve missed out on key RSE, experienced multiple lockdowns, transitioned to secondary school and have often faced restrictions around mixing with other year groups within school (due to social distancing measures).
Also this year, the Everybody's Invited movement has shone a necessary light on sexual harassment in schools.
Statistics tell us that 86% of 16-24 year old women have been sexually harassed in public spaces (UN Women UK) and 2 in 3 18-24 year-old men feel pressured to display hyper-masculine behaviour (Future Men Survey). This isn't to say that only young men are sexually assaulting young women. We know that not to be true: all genders and sexualities can experience and commit harm. Instead, these statistics demonstrate that there is something deeper going on at the root of peer-to-peer empathy, or lack of.
We chatted to Totteridge Academy about some issues that have arisen as a result of their Year 7s facing barriers to their education and physical lockdown restrictions. Some of the issues that have been observed includes negative behaviour towards physical boundaries, inappropriate language and difficult relationships - both in friendships and romantic relationships. It’s not a surprise that a lack of contact has impacted young people’s understanding of boundaries.
All students deserve to feel confident with their boundaries and the boundaries of others.
We approached this problem by running a design sprint with Totteridge Academy and GROW to identify the needs of their various stakeholders: students, staff and parents.
We identified that the outcomes of the programme were for students to understand how their behaviour made others feel, to understand how these behaviours can ripple outwards and have wider societal impact (e.g sexist jokes ultimately contributing to rape culture). We wanted students to leave with practical communication strategies to encourage consent in all of their relationships.
We designed a 3-week Empathy Programme for Year 7s to be delivered across their timetable. Some sessions were delivered by their form tutors, and others were delivered by their GROW teachers. This approach utilised existing relationships within the school and created regular spaces across the curriculum to talk openly about the core concepts: consent, boundaries, communication, empathy, care and kindness.
We're super excited and proud to announce that the resources we designed for the Empathy Programme are now open-source, which means you can download them for free and use in your own settings.
Huge thanks to: Laura Weir from The Weir Corporation who conceived and funded this idea, Lucy and others from GROW Totteridge for their input and collaboration, Jen at Totteridge Academy for her expert insight, all the teachers who delivered the programme, the students who took part and the amazing Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships programme that provided heaps of inspiration.
More about the collaborators:
GROW is a not for profit organisation providing bespoke programmes in sustainable food growing and outdoor learning to support well-being in schools and their communities.
The Totteridge Academy is a secondary school located in Barnet, North London.
The Weir Corporation is a creative consultancy.