Taking the first steps
As you’ll know, from September 2020, Relationships and Sex Education became compulsory for all secondary schools introducing a new curriculum to be taught in conjunction with current PSHE and Health Education statutory requirements. There have been increasing concerns underlining the need for young people to be protected and prepare for adult life in modern Britain, and the curriculum aims to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe.
Tender believes that the best relationships education comes from the whole school working in partnership to champion healthy relationships and prevent gender-based violence.
This is in line with national and international thinking: Department of Education guidance advised that the most effective violence prevention education programmes were achieved through a whole school approach.
The World Health Organisation asserts that the most successful projects ‘work towards making sure that the whole school shares the same vision towards reducing violence, and that the school head, teachers, administrative staff, students, parents and the community work together towards this shared goal’.
How does RE:SET work?
Relationships Education: School’s Equality Toolkit guides your school through the following five blocks which build on each other to reach everyone in the school:
1Project delivery team
Tender has over 10 years of experience in developing a Whole School Approach to violence-prevention and we know that a keystone for success is demonstrable commitment from senior leaders. Your journey begins with creating your school’s Project Delivery Team and leadership has to come from the top.
We also know that schools are time-poor, so RE:SET aims to make it as straight-forward as possible with timed tasks and the resources to achieve them. In this block, the tasks support you to create the team and infrastructure to deliver the effective management and impact of a whole school approach to healthy relationships education.
2Involving setting staff
Your staff are not only a major asset, they play a vital role in the prevailing culture of your school, so RE:SET wants to reach ALL adults working across the school because staff confidence in promoting healthly relationships is so important to the success of this project.
The tasks and resources in this block support your school to increase existing staff awareness, confidence and skills in order to promote healthy relationships and prevent gender-based violence. You will also work collaboratively with your Tender mentor to identify specialist safeguarding training programmes to boost staff knowledge.
3Working with children & young people
The aim of RE:SET is to support your pupils to learn safely, thrive as individuals and create future communities committed to respectful and equal relationships. The statutory guidance on Relationships Education outlines what is to be delivered and RE:SET will support your school on how to deliver the curriculum.
The tasks that you work through in this block will enhance the work you currently do with your pupils. You’ll create bespoke training designed in collaboration with your Tender mentor and receive additional lesson-plan ideas, delivery methods and resources. Through the induction and audit process you will also decide with you Tender Mentor if there are any workshops, campaigns or performances Tender can deliver with a specific group of students, for example in collaboration with a Student Council or Student Equalities Group. We could also support you to create your schools own Healthy Relationships Ambassadors who receive training and support to raise awareness amongst their peers.
4Involving families & communities
Your families and local communities are a potential asset in supporting your school to prevent violence and promote equality. Their active engagement will enhance your school’s journey to becoming a champion of healthy relationships education.
Confidence in talking to families and communities is vital, so the tasks in this block will support your school to consult with families and communities; including explaining why your school is addressing these issues, the strategies you’re using, the messages being promoted to students, and how families can also talk about healthy relationships, equality and trust with their children and young people to support them at home.
5Positive setting culture
The culmination of working through the tasks on each of the previous blocks in RE:SET will result in creating a positive culture throughout the whole school that promotes healthy relationships and reinforces your school’s commitment to violence-prevention. However communicating what your school is doing from day one will set the tone of your intentions.
The tasks in this block will support you with the development of messages delivered through a variety of mediums, that can be disseminated throughout the school and local community, and timetabled across the year.
Each area of the toolkit is divided into 3 categories of educational delivery:
Leadership &
Communication
Policies &
Curriculum
Timetable &
Planning
These contain key tasks and resources to support your setting to become a Healthy Relationships Champion Setting.
Tender will provide induction meetings, workshops and trainings alongside downloadable resources to guide your school step by step through the toolkit. Monitoring your progress through the toolkit is achieved through completing the key tasks. As each task is completed – your dashboard fills up.
When your school’s dashboard is complete – you will become a Healthy Relationships Champion Setting.