Our new Changes workshop
How to deliver inclusive puberty education
A blog for educators
This summer, we tested out our brand-new Changes workshop, which focuses on the changes that young people might experience during puberty. We decided to call it Changes because it is an accurate describer of what - I’m sure we can all agree (!) - is a pretty tumultuous time for tweens and teens.
Focusing on changes can help young people to accept and prepare for other periods of change which are likely to happen during the course of their lives.
Our approach for this workshop centres around:
Non-gendered language. This ensures that every child, no matter their gender identification, is included and receives the information to keep them safe and happy (we follow best practise from Gender Spectrum). We use a mixture of non-gendered language to describe bodies (e.g people with penises) and additive language to describe experiences (e.g women and girls and people with periods).
Menstrual education for all. Whether young people experience menstruation or not, they should all learn about the stages of the menstrual cycle and how it affects bodies and minds. This helps them to understand and support themselves and / or others (if you want to learn more, head over to our Living with Cycles blog).
Period products and period poverty. Young people need to know about the range of period products available, how to use them and where they can access them. They should also be signposted to places where they can get them for free (the government-funded period product scheme is available to all state maintained schools and 16 to 19 education organisations in England).
Social and emotional health. This involves exploring ways that young people might improve their overall wellbeing and soothe and care for themselves during periods of change. We’re aiming to build skills as well as knowledge.
We want young people to know that:
Everyone will experience changes, but in a different way, at a different pace.
There is no ‘normal’ way to experience puberty. But if anything is ever causing them pain or distress, they can seek help from a medical professional.
Whether someone was assigned female, male or intersex at birth can influence the changes they go through during puberty. But there is also a huge amount of variation that happens within sexes too, whether that’s to do with height, shape, features etc. Variation is beautiful!
They can support each other through times of changes, with kindness, listening and empathy.
In the workshop we cover:
Physical changes: bodies, growing, hair etc.
Emotional changes: mood swings, intense feelings etc.
Relationship changes: developing sexual feelings, drifting / forming friendships and familial relationships etc.
Ways to look after yourself through periods of changes: movement, cooking, reflecting, art, whatever works!
Making a self-care action plan: a practical activity where young people make a plan for the following week with ways to take care of themselves.
This July, we tested our Changes workshop with 575 students, across 2 different schools: one in London and one in Aylesbury. Over the summer break, we’ll take the feedback from students and teachers and work with our expert group of facilitators to adapt and improve the Changes workshop for next academic year. Get in touch if you’d like to book in for your Y7 or 8 students.
Evaluation from our workshops so far:
97% report an improvement in being able to name physical changes that occur during puberty.
95% report an improvement in being able to name emotional changes that occur during puberty.
95% report an improvement in being able to name relationship changes that occur during puberty.
90% report an improvement in their confidence managing their emotions.
97% report an improvement in being able to identify ways to make themselves feel better and practise self-care.