Safeguarding information

Talking about gender and the way it affects our lives can bring up some difficult issues, memories, and feelings. Although this online open educational resource and suggested classroom activities are not focused on personal experiences, it may lead to disclosures which amount to wellbeing concerns about pupils.

School policies: Before beginning this course you should re-familiarise yourself with your school’s related policies, including child protection, and make sure you are familiar with who your schools’ designated Child Protection Officer is. Children and young people involved in the activities associated with the course should be informed that you will pass on any concerns you have about their safety.

Signposting: There are many organisations set up to support children and young people with related issues. Before beginning the course find out about local services which you can signpost to as needed, for example, ChildLine, your local Rape Crisis centre, LGBT Youth Scotland.

Dealing with sexism in your classroom and school: Through this course and the classroom activities you may become aware of sexist behaviour in your school classrooms. Thinking in advance about how you with deal with this and discussing it with colleagues will be helpful. If faced with sexist behavior from a student it can be helpful to make a value statement such as “using that word(s) to put someone down is unacceptable”. Help them challenge the reasoning behind their words with questions such as “what makes you think that?” or “what do you mean by that?”. Learning to recognise and challenge everyday sexist behavior of staff and pupils is an integral part of contributing to positive culture change.

Sexual harassment and bullying at school: Recent research shows that sexual harassment and bullying at school is widespread. Sexual harassment and bullying is a cause and consequence of gender inequality. Girlguiding Scotland’s 2014 Girl’s Attitude Survey revealed that 59% of girls aged 13 to 21 faced sexual harassment at school or college, and 22% of girls 7-12 had experienced jokes of a sexual nature from boys at school. The Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee has recently published a report It is not Cool to be Cruel [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] on children’s experiences of prejudice-based bullying and harassment with recommendations including teacher training and changes to the curriculum.

Dealing with disclosures: Pupils may disclose something related to sexism, sexual harassment or abuse, in a group setting or to you individually in response to the classroom activities. Some general principles for dealing with a disclosure are:

• Stay calm and listen carefully
• Explain that you might need to pass on concerns
• Let the child set the pace, don’t ask lots of questions
• Provide reassurance and explain what will happen next
• Get advice and support for you, if needed.

Preparing for what might come up: Before conducting classroom activities it may be helpful to think through and discuss with colleagues in your study group what kind of issues may come up and how you will deal with them.