Earlier this term, acet UK’s Kelly-Joy had the opportunity to participate in one of our 4 Day relationship and sex education (RSE) training courses. Here she shares her experience.
Although I’ve worked with young people, I haven’t had much experience in the area of delivering relationships and sex education so I was really excited about the opportunity to participate in our Esteem training course here in Chester.
Firstly, it was encouraging to be in a room full of people who all came from different levels of experience in RSE; some had been doing it for years and others, like me, had never really done it before. Gareth, our Esteem Network Director, who facilitated the training did a great job creating an atmosphere that was welcoming and friendly.
The breadth and depth of knowledge that was shared was very impressive. It was all really accessible and communicated in an inspiring and engaging way. Gareth told funny stories from his experiences, used humour to disarm us when we got awkward, and brought a sensitivity to topics that can be quite hard hitting. I appreciated the space created for conversations, discussions and hearing from other people. It was great to be able to share freely in a safe environment and ask questions. Gareth had so much wisdom to share and answered our questions brilliantly, giving us practical tools and tips for specific situations we might face when working with young people.
Throughout the course, there were so many opportunities to proactively get involved. We were never sat just listening for too long because there was always an activation for each part of the training. We got to take part in some of the activities and games that would be used with young people which was good fun but also helped to demonstrate how certain topics and areas of RSE can be explained and delivered.
As part of the course, we were asked to prepare a lesson ourselves that we would deliver to the group as if they were young people. I found this part stretching because I hadn’t done anything like that before but it was great to actually have the chance to practise and have a go at putting into action everything we had been learning. Even though it was out of my comfort zone, I was given helpful feedback and doing it in practise was really positive for growing my confidence.
At the end of each day, we were given a daily check in sheet with a few questions to answer to refresh our memory of what we had been discussing that day. It also gave us the chance to reflect on our confidence and whether or not we were feeling more or less confident at the end of that day. This was something I found really helpful. My confidence in delivering RSE to young people most definitely increased day by day.
I really enjoyed the training and would highly recommend it. I came away with my confidence in a much stronger place, knowing so much more about RSE than I ever have before and with a whole new set of skills to deliver RSE going forward.
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