Method
We will create a bespoke short (10 - 15 minutes) video for your school introducing the relationships and sex education topic the school would like the students to explore, for example, sex and the law, STIs, or sexting. We will introduce ourselves, give a very brief overview of the topic and invite anonymous questions. (We will give a couple of example questions to get them thinking about what they might ask, and explain the limits - i.e. no personal questions).
For one week we will open an online anonymous question box web page for your school, where students will be able to submit questions related to RSE and the key topic.
We will review all the questions and put together 45 minutes of video of us answering these questions, which you can choose to have as one video or 3 x 15-minute videos.
These response videos will include visuals and sources for learners when appropriate (such as highlighting support lines like the NSPCC). We can not promise to answer all the questions if we are asked too many, so we will prioritise and amalgamate questions as appropriate to cover as many topics as possible.
More information
Additional points
The school will be given a copy of all the questions asked by the students.
These Q&A sessions are very useful in supporting future PSHE curriculum planning, and also provide a very strong source of evidence to show during RSE parental consultation processes, giving parents and staff a real-time insight into the RSE needs of their young people.
Safeguarding
Just like any opportunity for anonymous questions, the online anonymous question box could be used by young people to reveal a safeguarding disclosure. If this happens, we will of course pass on the full details of the question to the school safeguarding team. This is the digital equivalent of us passing on a slip of paper with such a disclosure that we might receive during an in-person lesson. This will be explained to the students during the introductory video.
If such a situation comes up, we would consult with the safeguarding team and, if appropriate and agreed, we may still respond to the question in a way designed to encourage the young person to now tell someone directly either through the school, childline, or the police.
'Silly' questions
You may worry that such an opportunity would be misused by students to ask 'silly' questions. Whether online or in-person, our Esteem team believes that the best way to reply to all questions is to take the opportunity to provide some helpful information related to the topic. We believe it is important to role model that we can laugh about sex and by responding to some silly questions we can keep the whole tone of such sessions light and educational. We want young people to have a positive experience of the session.
Remote, asynchronous, and interactive
We know that schools have been working incredibly hard for over a year to meet a rapidly changing educational structure due to COVID-19. This project has been designed to adapt to varying contexts. For example, if a form class or small group of students are instructed to self-isolate at any point they will be able to access the same introduction video, anonymous question box, and response videos from home if the school chooses.
Technical requirements
We will work with the school to ensure that the videos created are in a format that is easily used. Our standard will be MP4. By sending you videos directly, you will be able to control how the video is distributed via your preferred channels.
Students will need to be able to access a specific anonymous question box webpage for this project. We will give you the details well in advance of the sessions so your school can check the link and whitelist the webpage on your school network if necessary.
Booking
Our experience from this work suggests that it is most effective when limited to a specific year group. Such a group size allows students to feel anonymous enough to ask questions but it keeps the questions at a similar level of maturity. We can work with students from reception up to year 13.