How significant is it that this project has been made up of all these different single sex & co-ed elements?

“The separate sessions allow the boys and girls to think about their own context first, without having to think about how it is viewed by the other sex. It creates a safe space to explore what it means to be a girl or boy and how society has projected expectations onto them. They really value this – however they are also desperate to hear from the others and so the mixed sessions are crucial in bringing their lived experiences into the room altogether so that everyone can see that there are currently negative impacts for everyone.”

How much did this project increase your students/colleagues ability to identify subtle or hidden gender stereotypes in school and how this links to VAWG?

“Having done this work with It Happens Education and Beyond Equality, our school community are much better able to identify these things now. It does allow students to more critically evaluate what they see in the world – especially online. All of that work, is gently opening up discussions and has led to changes within the school as well. In terms of VAWG it has made students more aware of the fact that VAWG is a societal problem that has been created by adults before them but that they can be part of the solution.”

Would you recommend It Happens Education to other schools to train teachers and work with students about awareness of inequalities, get everyone onboard with VAWG and prevention of gender-based harms through a whole school approach to RSHE?

“100%! It Happens Education facilitators have a super-power, which is to clearly outline to girls the effects of inequality, which could be incendiary, but they do it in a way that shows that society at the moment is a really hard place to be a boy as well. The girls really see that and have great compassion for the experience of the boys. That joint understanding leads to a joint sense of hope and of wanting to make things better.”