Sexual abuse toolkit: training

HFL Education

Sexual harassment and abuse review process for schools

Individual schools and MATs can book the following full day review from the HFL Wellbeing Team, followed by feedback and a written report.

Anti-Sexual Abuse Audit, delivered by the Wellbeing Team (focused on gender, sexual harassment and consent)   

• students’ lived experience and student attitudes
• staff engagement, understanding and consistency (including confidence and training)
• preventative curriculum and safety in school environment
• relevant policy and practice – including language and attitudes - ‘normalisation’
• interactions between students and between students and staff
• recording and reporting systems (thresholds and referral pathways)
• responding to incidents (logs)
• managing disclosures including pupil support
• engagement with local organisations/agencies
• working with parents and carers.

Further support available through staff INSET, consultancy or twilights (online or face to face)

The following list reflects the range of content that can be included in any tailored training or consultancy programme for individual schools or for MATs.

• training sessions can be delivered as INSET twilights for whole staff teams, as briefings or as light-bites.
• where schools share an interest, sessions can be organised to be delivered centrally as light-bites (1.5 hours)
• consultancy is tailored to meet the needs of the staff involved but can be attended by representative from multiple schools to reduce cost.

All of the following content is focussed on young people’s contexts and appropriate teaching, classroom resources and school systems.

• teaching an anti-sexual abuse curriculum
• responding to disclosures and processes to support all involved
• what is inappropriate touch, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse?
• cultures that enable sexual bullying – what it looks like in a school, where it happens (hot-spotting) and how to deconstruct it
• the law on consent and domestic violence
• responding to the sexualisation of children and young people and the stereotyping of sexes, genders and relationships
• toxic masculinity and how to counter its drivers
• attraction, oppression and porn’s impact on relationship expectations
• exploring with young people what a positive and a negative relationships might look and feel like. Identifying the shifts and tricks
• young people’s experiences of sexual bullying and how to research in school sensitively
• overcoming stigma and fear around reporting and accessing help when needed – relevant data, signposting and identifying when to access support
• peer pressure, sexual harassment and abuse (including in relationship to puberty changes)
• working with parents on issues of preventing and responding to sexual harassment and abuse
• using the RSHE and wider curriculum to deliver consistent messages on consent, anti-abuse and safety in relationships

For further information and to discuss or book support please contact wellbeing@hfleducation.org

Senior leaders dealing with complex peer on peer issues can access support through contacting the Wellbeing Team at HFL Wellbeing@Hfl.co.uk 

NSPCC course to help primary schools respond to harmful sexual behaviour

The NSPCC have an online training course to help teachers and school staff identify and respond appropriately to instances of sexualised behaviour. It includes practical information and advice on how to recognise, respond to and report cases of unhealthy sexualised behaviour so schools can play their part in preventing children from coming to harm.

NSPCC: Training for schools on sexual behaviour

For all any queries or further information, please contact: safeguardingboardteam@nspcc.org.uk