Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a toolkit to educate primary school children on healthy relationships as part of his campaign to tackle systematic misogyny and violence against women and girls.
The toolkit, available to all primary schools in London, will help “champion healthy and respectful relationships and attitudes” and offer online courses for teachers to run relevant workshops and classes.
The mayor has criticised the impact of so-called misogyny influencers on young people, saying, “Young people must learn about respectful relationships before they start seeing content from individuals like Andrew Tate online.”
Research shows that one in three young males have a positive view of Andrew Tate, while it's estimated that young people are being exposed to online pornography from as young as nine years old, which is harming their view of girls and relationships.
Earlier today, Sadiq Khan launched the toolkit at a primary school in North London. And he invited GLAMOUR along to witness one of the workshops in action.
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We were delighted to be welcomed to Seven Sisters Primary School, where we observed a teacher delivering a workshop on respect to a class of Year 6 boys and girls. One of the exercises involved each child holding a red flag. Two children at a time would act out a scenario, and the rest of the class would raise their red flags whenever they spotted any problematic language or behaviour.
“It's really important, particularly when we do the role-playing, for boys to have empathy about some of the issues girls go through,” the mayor explained to GLAMOUR. "And for girls to feel they can talk to boys about what they're experiencing.
“These lessons are really important because they teach girls and give them the tools to respond [to inappropriate behaviour], but they also educate boys about what is a healthy relationship, how to treat girls, about equality and respect.”
He continues, “We've got to ensure girls don't get victim blamed. We've got to make sure girls don't feel it's their fault because of the length of their skirt or the way they behave.”
We also chatted with Ashley James, a women's rights campaigner, who noted that she didn't learn about boundaries and red flags until she was in her twenties. “They're in year six, and they're putting up red flags. It's really exciting because to be able to tackle girls, we have to start young and acknowledge that there is a problem.”
She also reflected on being a mother to a young boy and girl. “From the moment my daughter was born, there's all this rhetoric about protecting or ‘locking up’ your daughters. It's not up to us to lock girls away. We need to give them tools to understand that they can stand up for themselves. They can say no, they can have boundaries.
Ashley continued, “But I also have to protect my son. I'm terrified that he could go to school and have negative influences around him, and he might start speaking badly about girls, and that would break my heart. My son starts school next year and knowing that he's coming into school in London and that this toolkit will be available is really reassuring.”
Ashley further praised the toolkit for being aimed at primary-school-aged children, saying it “nips casual sexism in the bud,” adding, “So often casual sexism is a really hard thing to pinpoint because people can't correlate sexist jokes with the more serious stuff of sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape, and murder.”
She called for the toolkit to be available to schools outside of London. “I would love for the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to look at the amazing work that the mayor of London is doing and to roll it out nationwide because I know that there will be mums, dads and teachers who will be wanting this toolkit in their schools.”
This is the latest initiative from the mayor that takes a “public health” approach to tackling violence against women and girls by focusing on early intervention, prevention, and education.
The mayor previously detailed this approach in an interview with GLAMOUR, describing misogyny as an “infection.” He continued, "We stop the infection from spreading, but ideally, you stop it from occurring in the first place.”
The toolkit was created by the charity Tender, which works with young people to promote healthy relationships, and is funded by the mayor as part of his ongoing £233million investment to tackle violence against women and girls in London.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
Gender-based violence is not inevitable.
