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Loudmouth Education and Training: Supporting relationships and health education on exploitation and harassment using Theatre in Education

Richmond and Wandsworth Borough Councils commissioned Loudmouth to incorporate Theatre in Education (TiE) into their approach to the prevention of exploitation of children and young people and raise awareness on harmful sexual behaviours such as sexual harassment and assault. Loudmouth is an innovative TiE company with over 30 years’ experience of collaborating with local authorities to support Relationships, Sex and Health Education and safeguarding in schools and other educational venues.

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Synopsis

This case study covers a two-year collaboration between Richmond and Wandsworth Borough Councils and Loudmouth Education and Training.

During this period Loudmouth delivered almost 90 Theatre in Education (TiE) sessions in primary and secondary schools in Richmond and Wandsworth reaching over 8,500 young people. Sessions:

  • increased awareness and knowledge around different forms of exploitation and harassment
  • increased skills in spotting signs of exploitation or abuse
  • increased confidence in safely calling out harassment
  • increased access to relevant support and services. 

The challenge

Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) supports evidence-based education in the classroom that equips children ‘to develop the knowledge and skills to grow into healthy adults seeking healthy relationships that are free from exploitation and abuse.’ The statutory guidance suggests that classroom based / teacher led education is more effective when supplemented by provision from a range of external agencies that allow children and young people to practice skills and behaviours in a safe and interactive way and are linked to access to support services.

The challenge for public health in particularly is to find innovative and effective ways to support classroom delivery of RSE. TiE has a long history of providing such supplementary support to Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE). It allows children and young people to explore contentious and difficult issues in a safe and reflective way in formats that support early help, safeguarding and relationship education. 

Public health support for TiE programmes contributes to the delivery of multi-component Early Help and Safeguarding Education. Richmond and Wandsworth Borough Councils identified that any use of TiE should be interactive, use external agencies, explore interlinked issues, be tailored to school need, and be evidence-based.

The solution

Loudmouth Education and Training is a TiE company that has been delivering RSHE since 1994 and has reached over 1 million children, young people, professionals and parents. They provide a range of programmes and formats that local authorities and individual schools can use to support their safeguarding and relationship education. The delivery teams are all fully DBS checked and Level 3 safeguarding trained and they work in a range of venues and environments with children and young people of all needs, abilities, and backgrounds. 

Loudmouth began working with Richmond and Wandsworth Borough Councils in 2021 to run tours over the academic years up to 2025. These support the borough’s plans and strategies in relation to sexual health, drugs, and alcohol, VAWG and safeguarding children. The project included work in both primary and secondary settings including SEND settings and PRUs. Programmes focus on safeguarding, child exploitation (including county lines) and sexual harassment:

  • Helping Hands – a theatre in education programme for ages 9-11 at KS2 level. Issues covered include child exploitation and abuse, online safety, and domestic abuse. 
  • Working For Marcus – A theatre in education programme for age 13+ at KS3, 4 & 5 level. Issues covered include child exploitation, knife crime, drugs, sexual exploitation, county lines and grooming.
  • Calling It Out - A programme for ages 13+ at KS3, 4 & 5 level. Issues covered include harmful sexual behaviours, sexual harassment, sexual assault, pornography, consent, and misogyny.

Richmond and Wandsworth Council collaborated with Loudmouth to include additional lesson plans and materials for parents. The programme also signposts to local and national organisations including links to a South West London health website for children and young people: www.gettingiton.org.uk.

The impact

Ninety-nine percent of staff rated the sessions as ‘above average’ or ‘excellent’, 95 per cent said that the sessions had had a ‘high’ to ‘considerable’ impact on their groups and 100 per cent would recommend the programmes to other schools. Examples of comments are shown below.

  • “The performance and workshop were engaging and well structured - lead by two professionals who were highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic during the whole day.” 
  • “[Loudmouth] got children talking and aware of these topics. They could relate because of the way it was performed and understood that it can happen to anyone. There were lots of misconceptions before.”
  • “The students really responded well to the in-character questions. It was a great way to address some very sensitive topics that are very relevant to today's school culture.”

Helping Hands

Since 2021 Loudmouth have delivered almost fifty sessions of Helping Hands reaching over 2,500 children. During the sessions, children were taught the NSPCC’s PANTS rule. By the end of the session 90 per cent of children could name four of the five ‘rules’. 65 per cetn could name all five. Awareness of support service increased. Awareness of Childline as a source of support rose from 25 per cent to 67 per cent at the end of the session. 100 per cent of children said that they thought that the Helping Hands programme helps children to stay safe and 72 per cent said that they would act differently as a result of the session. 

Working for Marcus

Loudmouth also delivered over 20 sessions of Working for Marcus since 2021 reaching almost 3,500 young people. Those that rated their knowledge of different forms of child exploitation as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ rose from 43 per cent to 89 per cent as a result of the session. Awareness of the local service ‘Getting It On’ rose from 0 per cent to 42 per cent as a result of the session. 99 per cent of young people stated that they thought that the Working for Marcus programme helps young people to stay safe and 76 per cent said that they would act differently as a result of taking part in the sessions. 

Calling It Out

Finally, 20 sessions of Calling it Out reached over 2,500 young people. Those that rated their knowledge on sexual harassment and abuse as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ rose from 64 per cent to 86 per cent. 

The number of young people who said that they were either ‘Confident’ or ‘Very Confident’ to safely call out sexual harassment rose from confidence rose from 54 per cent to 89 per cent. Awareness of the local service ‘Getting It On’ rose from 0 per cent to 83 per cent as a result of the session. 84 per cent said that they would act differently as a result of taking part in the sessions. During the project, Loudmouth processed three disclosures which were passed to the Designated Safeguarding Lead in each venue to access support.

How is the new approach being sustained?

The funding subsidises the cost of the sessions for schools. This encourages take up and supports programme delivery in targeted schools. 

Lessons Learned

There has been a wealth of lessons learned from undertaking the Loudmouth project since 2021. These include more engagement of local stakeholders including DSLs and Healthy Schools leads, increase of costs to schools to help future funding, improved processes for evaluation and new opportunities and formats to distribute the evaluation findings.

Contact

Kate Jennings, Senior Public Health Lead
[email protected]