In the 2021/2022 school year, our own Esteem team Paul, Michelle, Rachel and Gareth delivered multiple Esteem relationships and sex education sessions to 4,060 young people across London and Cheshire. Our schools' work serves as a model of best practice to the Esteem network.
Although we have returned to in-person sessions in most schools, some preferred us to continue with sessions conducted by live video link.
In each session, we use various methods to measure changes in the young people’s knowledge, skills and confidence as a result of the session. We do this to monitor and evaluate the impact the lessons have had and also to look for ways to improve.
Earlier this year, we carried out a survey amongst 265 students, asking how COVID-19 and the lockdowns had impacted them so that we could provide the right support. The results were mixed with roughly 50% of students saying there had been a negative impact and 50% saying there had been either no impact or a positive impact.
Here are some of the responses:
“The lockdown made me obsessed with my body and I worked out for an hour every night.”
“It did not impact me. I was able to spend more time on myself and understand who I am.”
“My self-esteem was lower because I was spending more time on social media.”
“I have become unable to socialise and I’m boring.”
The 2022/2023 year got off to a flying start in September with several schools booking an entire year of RSE sessions!
In September alone, we worked with over a thousand young people in six high schools in years 7 to 11, covering topics such as Self esteem, Body image, Relationships and consent, Sexting, Actions and attitudes.
In September, we have also delivered an assembly at a London school and provided two bespoke training workshops for teachers.
Michelle has continued to develop the racial identity project and Rachel has been piloting primary sessions and materials. This has included working with a group of children in a special educational needs unit exploring emotions, self-control and conflict resolution.