Dear Parent/Carer,
On Monday 23rd of October we are excited to share with you an assembly opportunity to support your child's personal development. Some of the workshops on offer promote positive masculinity and aim to raise boys up. There is nothing wrong with masculinity and femininity, and we share more than we’re different, but we need to respect the differences. Our guiding message is one of inclusivity. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to develop into positive role models and focuses on some of the areas in our RSE and Health Education curriculum and underpins our academies’ wider curriculum delivery:
- emotional intelligence
- understanding their own mental health
- developing a positive self-image and self-worth
- how to develop healthy relationships
- responsibility for their own personal hygiene
- how to keep themselves safe
- understanding the importance of physical activity
Student Voice overwhelmingly asked for us to contact a range of external providers and workshops to support this delivery and we are pleased to share the start of this with you. This term, we are very lucky to host the Self Esteem Team, an external provider, to deliver to the Y9 and 10 cohort. The Self Esteem Team will focus on understanding their own mental health and in Year 10 focus on self esteem, role models in the media and developing a positive self image and self worth. It is led by a speaker who shares personal testimony of how far toxic masculinity can go, which resulted in time at a Young Offenders Institution, before turning his life around and now being an exceptional role model to pupils while he demonstrates emotional literacy right in front of them:
‘For most people, confidence peaks and troughs throughout life, but developing an understanding of where self-esteem comes from at a young age can really help to keep a person in the driver's seat. Students will learn to challenge the labels we place on people and discover ways to create a positive feedback loop for themselves and interacting with others and respecting differences. Our workshops promote positive masculinity and aim to raise boys up. There is nothing wrong with masculinity and femininity, and we share more than we’re different, but we need to respect the differences. Our guiding message is one of inclusivity.
Self Esteem Team, 2023
The Year 9 Self Esteem workshop will focus on body image, understanding how our world can distort body image, acknowledging how social media images are manipulated and explore what we really value in people are inner traits rather than aesthetics. In addition, students in Y9 have been visited by South Yorkshire Fire Service who have delivered an extended assembly called ‘Darker Nights’. This looks at the choices and consequences. It is aimed at educating young people about fire safety, highlighting the dangers of arson, ASB and hoax calls. Darker Nights is part of a fire safety education programme which has been commissioned by the National Community Fire Safety Centre, part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to death and injury by fire. It is aimed at encouraging young people to take responsibility for their own actions and to understand the consequences of such behavior and the impact on communities. This slide show will be shared with students across the academy in Life lessons.
If you would like further information or there any reasons that you think your child should not attend the assembly, please contact Mrs Riley on
s.riley@shafton.outwood.com
Yours sincerely,
Sarah Riley
Associate Assistant Principal