Bespoke Workshop - Sexual Harassment (KS3-5)
60-minute high quality, detailed & flexible workshops or assemblies.
Performed to students in small or large groups.
May suit carousel days or one-off visits. Available throughout the year.
How do the sessions run?
Our workshops are performed by 3 professional actors.
We start by breaking down what we are covering in the sessions: we explore the definitions, clarify facts and any laws surrounding the topic, and invite the students to answer questions and get involved.
The students are then shown scenes with characters in everyday, relatable situations.
We use elements of Augusto Boal's 'Forum Theatre: following scenes which see young characters with conflicting objectives, we freeze the action and split the audience into groups; the students are invited to advise the characters about what to do next. This is designed to allow students to articulate opinions and feelings in a safe, objective environment.
What We Cover
Identifying sexual harassment and what to do if you experience it.
Our Sexual Harassment workshop explores issues included in the PSHE Suggested Programme of Study (Core Theme 2 - Relationships), Everyone’s Invited Ofsted Report and #MeTooAtSchool and End Violence Against Women campaign.
We take a focused look at myths & facts surrounding sexual harassment including: What constitutes sexual harassment, how sexual harassment can happen to anyone and should not be normalised, figures and statistics of people and young people who have experienced sexual harassment and how to report it.
The students are invited to offer advice to a series of characters, including a young person who is being pressured by their friend to share an explicit image of a classmate; and someone who is being sexually harassed at an afterschool club by a person in a position of power.
We conclude by outlining help and resources available.
We're more than happy to tailor the workshop upon request to focus on any issues you feel are particularly relevant to your students.
Included with the workshop
Teacher's further work pack
Why is it so important to discuss Sexual Harassment with young people?
Unfortunately the statistics speak for themselves, and Ofsted’s report following the Everyone’s Invited scandal showed a disturbing normalising of sexual harassment.
Everyone’s Invited received over 1000 testimonies from students – mostly female – who experienced sexual harassment in school.
1/3 of 16-18 year old girls say they have experienced unwanted sexual touching in school, and 71% of women of all ages in the UK have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public places.
A recent Ofsted report showed that 90% of girls and 50% of boys had been sent unwanted explicit pictures or videos.
59% of young women aged 13-21 say they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at school or college in the past year.
Everyone’s Invited testimonies included having an explicit image shared by a classmate, classmates ‘ranking’ other classmates based on physical appearance or in serious cases, sexual assault by a peer.
UpFront Theatre Company's workshop outlines the facts, but also explores how to identify, challenge and report sexual harassment.