Tecnologías de síntesis

The children are told to get into pairs and to stand opposite each other in a line. The children stood on one side are told to walk slowly towards their partner and the partners have to say ‘stop’ when the other comes too close for comfort. One child called out ‘stop’ when the task had just started and partner took only one step. Other children are laughing at this.

MF and FF put hands in air (to get children to quieten down) and the teacher tells children to listen.

Task continued and children called out ‘stop’ at various intervals. Then the class sat down for a whole class discussion.

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It’s nearly lunch time and the class seem fidgety and lack attention. It’s also still very hot and the sun is shining right into the classroom. FF asks children why we might say ‘stop’ if someone comes too close; one child says ‘it’s harassment if someone comes too close’. This discussion doesn’t really take off and the group are getting more fidgety and not paying much attention. Other children in the school are playing in the playground and passing by the classroom door in the corridor.

FF then starts to move on to the next task but the teacher says it’s lunch time now. FF wasn’t aware it was lunchtime and apologised to the children and said they would do the next task after lunch.

This suggests that environmental factors, and time of day, may need to be better considered when delivering these programmes to children in schools.

Although none of the participating children from School A specifically mentioned the themes of inappropriate touch and personal space in relation to their learning on sexual abuse awareness, children from this school did easily recall the P.A.N.T.S rule, as outlined above. As half of the children who took part in the focus groups across all three schools referred to the topic of sexual abuse in relation to what they had learned shortly after the programme, this is a notable outcome. Gender differences were evident with more girls commenting on an increase in their knowledge in this area with 63% (n=10/16) of the girls identifying this area compared to 30% (n=4/13) of the boys. Findings suggest that these children felt better equipped with the knowledge and language to recognise and stay safe from sexual abuse, and positive attitudes, particularly among girls, in relation to increased confidence and empowerment around appropriate physical boundaries, appear to have been developed.

In addition, three children at School A, one boy and two girls, talked about how the

programme had reinforced earlier learning in school around sexual abuse prevention. These children recalled a previous visit from ChildLine to their school and talked about how the programme had served to remind them about these earlier messages as well as the availability of the ChildLine telephone service:

Beena: Friend or if it’s bullying you can call ChildLine 0800 1111. Nicola: Very good. Did you know that number before?

176 (Beena: Girl, School A, Group 1)

I just want to say thank you because they reminded us, we’re in year 5 now, it’s like one year we could have done anything but they literally just reminded of us

everything that could happen but could call ChildLine, and yeah, so I’m happy about this. (Boy, School A, Group 2)

However, as noted above, strengthening children’s understanding may be more effective if messages are clear and consistent with what children have already learnt and if children are given the opportunity to expand on their prior knowledge.

c. Peer pressure and sexual bullying

Increasing children’s awareness of peer pressure and sexual bullying is a key programme outcome and this is closely related to the broader topic of sexual abuse discussed above. This topic is mainly explored through a scenario in which the female facilitator performs the role of a 10-year-old girl called Charlie, who tells of feeling pressured by her friend Mo to send him a picture of her private parts. The programme further encourages children to recognise different forms of pressure through an activity where children volunteer to enact various strategies, for example, flattery or blackmail, to persuade a classmate to give them a bottle of water. Programme outcomes also relate to promoting affective change by

developing children’s empathy, presumably so that they can recognise when others may be feeling pressured.

This is another common topic that half of the 29 participating children mentioned in relation to their increased understanding and those children were spread proportionality across the three schools, with more girls commenting on this topic (n=10/16) compared to the boys (n=4/13). These were mostly the same girls who had commented on the wider topic of sexual abuse discussed above. All the children who commented on this topic expressed support for Charlie by recognising that this was something that she did not want to do, and therefore she shouldn’t do it. One boy identified this as a form of sexual bullying and linked this with his new knowledge of the previous topic on sexual abuse:

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Remember like when Charlie came in and this guy called Sam or something told him to send a picture of his privates....the message means that your own body is to yourself so you can’t send, like pictures around you. (Boy, School A, Group 2)

That this boy was able to make connections between different concepts addressed in the programme feeds into the discussion around how the programme is structured, for example, if concepts are delivered to children over a series of disparate sessions, these connections may not be made so easily.

All the children who commented during the focus groups were confident that Charlie should resist by not sending the photo and this was also largely based on their perception that there could be negative repercussions, for example that the photo might be shared more widely:

I learnt that if someone asks, even if you know them, if someone asks you to send a picture of your private parts, straight away you just have to say ‘no’, because if you do, something bad could happen. (Girl, School B, Group 1)

Two children, a boy and a girl, both from School C, described how they would not have known how to deal with this scenario prior to the programme, but felt more confident as a result of the programme about what to do if they were faced with this situation:

And plus I thought the Charlie thing would stick out too because that’s like full of the bad things that could happen to you, in that situation you wouldn’t know what to do, but now you’ve taught us this, we understand that it’s bad and that we shouldn’t do it. (Girl, School C, Group 2)

However, as discussed above under Programme Content, eight children participating in the focus groups were resistant to this material, describing feelings of discomfort when

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One girl felt that the scenario lacked credibility stating that it was ‘inappropriate for a ten- year-old to be sending a picture of her private parts to another ten-year-old’. In addition, two children at School A reported that they were unfamiliar with this type pf scenario and that this left them feeling ‘confused’ about the purpose of the material:

Hesam: Yeah I was a bit confused when she came and she was like… Sam told me to take a picture of private part. I was confused, why would anyone just want to do that?

Jasmine: Why would anyone want to do that?

Hesam: …I was like, why would someone want a picture of someone’s private parts?

(Hesam and Jasmine: Boy and Girl, School A, Group2)

This suggests that children would benefit from more transparency around the context of sending explicit images and how this could relate to them feeling pressurised. However, this also links in with the point made earlier that although children may feel uncomfortable, without some level of discomfort when learning about ‘sensitive’ issues, learning may not be as effective (Tutty, 2014).

Only two girls, from Schools B and C, explicitly commented on how the programme had helped them to recognise different forms of peer pressure:

I didn’t really know there are so many ways to pressure someone into doing something and like getting their way. (Girl, School C, Group 2)

However, four children from across Schools B and C appeared to misunderstand the aim of the water bottle activity where different forms of pressure, such as making threats, were demonstrated:

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When we were playing the game when someone’s in the middle and they had the water bottle, I didn’t really understand that ‘cause I didn’t know why, because sometimes when you’re angry you calm down, but when you have a fight over something you don’t always get your way, and I didn’t really understand what we were doing about it. (Girl, School B, Group 3)

As such, the purpose of this pressure activity may need to be more explicit, so children make a clear link between the activity and the message around different forms of persuasion. In addition, the following observations suggest that children at School B felt frustrated at the lack of opportunity to participate, and therefore withdrew from the task. As noted earlier, a lack of opportunity to participate in activities was an aspect of the programme that children were critical of.

Observation notes – School B

Day 2- Task 3: Pressure Bottle (10.51am – 11.08am)