Equally Safe at School

Many schools, young people and other partners have recognised that there is a lack of focus on gender-based violence as a major concern for schools, despite a significant percentage of young people reporting that they have experienced Gender-Based Violence (GBV) within school.

To help schools combat this, Rape Crisis Scotland created Equally Safe at School (ESAS), a programme that works with the whole school to help prevent gender-based violence from occurring and helps the schools become a more supportive place for students who have been affected by gender-based violence.

To achieve this, ESAS works with the whole school community through 6 key components. These components are:

• Self-assessment; surveys given to staff and students to ascertain the key issues for that school are.
• A student action group; students take the key findings from the self-assessment surveys and generate ideas on what they think can help address them.
• Teacher training; this component consists of two parts. The first is a 45-minute e-module available for all school staff, explaining what GBV is, how it affects young people, what they can do within their own individual role to help prevent it from occurring.
• The second training is enhanced training for staff within a support role, focusing on the impacts of GBV on young people who experience it, and what staff can do to meet their support needs.
• Policy work; a GBV policy template is provided which can be edited to suit the individual needs of the school. Additionally, Rape Crisis Scotland provide examples of how to build policies that prevent GBV into other school frameworks such as Promoting Positive Behaviours policy.
• Teaching resources; resources on how to add themes of gender equality into lessons as well as resources on how to build gender balance into lessons, while managing gendered classroom dynamics.
• Monitoring progress; monitoring and evolution tools to help schools sustain and monitor their progress.

If you’d like more information regarding the ESAS programme, please email prevention@starcentreayrshire.org or visit www.equallysafeatschool.org.