June was the busiest month we’ve ever had! We traveled up to Scotland, delivered lots of workshops, updated our website, started work with a university and hosted two sex-education-themed events. Here are just a few of our monthly highlights.
Celebrating Pride at Soho House
We celebrated Pride this month by hosting an event at Soho House with Dr Alex Rhys, the amazing director of ‘It Gets Better UK’. He bravely and honestly discussed his journey of discovering, accepting and then
celebrating his own sexuality and the barriers that LGBT young people face today. We would love to work with Alex’s organisation more over the coming months - watch this space!
Sex Ed Matters in Scotland
This month we supported the international summer school ISSOS. We caught the train up to Scotland to discuss lots of consent topics with senior staffers and trainers who will manage and support those working across the residential this summer. We covered a lot, from the normalisation of toxic relationships to the pressure to sext, how to encourage boys to openly discuss their feelings and debunk gender stereotypes. Our aim was to make sure the students on ISSOS residentials are supported as much as possible and that staffers feel confident discussing stigmatised topics with them when needed. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Why young people gave 360 speeches about sex ed
For the first time we sponsored a debating competition in which young people of all ages debated important sex education topics. This included the validity of menstrual leave, whether PSHE should be taught in a mixed gender class and the expansion of LGBT labels. It was incredible to see so many young people engage with these topics confidently, listen to the ideas of other students and respond with enthusiasm.
In total, 360 speeches were made by 120 students comprising 40 teams from 10 schools! We hope this event helped to spark important conversations, tackle stigmas and boost the confidence of everyone in attendance.
Let’s talk about menopause
We loved heading back to Oxford High School in June to discuss menopause and debunk fertility myths with year 12 students! They are always really keen to discuss campaigning solutions to the problems we highlight, including by being open and supportive to relatives going through menopause and promoting menopause policies to workplaces so fewer people feel they have to leave work due to menopausal symptoms.
Website upgrade
Thanks to feedback from our funders for this year, UKRI, we have given our website a makeover! We would love to hear what you think of it. Feel free to share your feedback (good and bad) to us by emailing info@sexedmatters.co.uk.
Building girls’ confidence
Finally, we kicked off our collaboration with Oxford Brookes University! We are bringing their years of research in gender stereotypes and what impacts the confidence of girls to life. Academics Hannah Yelin and Michele Paule have found most workshops or courses dedicated to boosting the confidence of girls aim to change women rather than address the societal barriers to them presenting as confident. Together, we’re developing a new course which puts this right and focuses on addressing the societal and intersectional barriers girls in particular often face. If you would like to be part of this scheme next academic year, please do email us at info@sexedmatters.co.uk. We would love to hear from you!
That’s all for now, but watch this space as we have lots more planned for July! In the meantime, Sign up to our newsletter here to stay in touch and up to date about our work.
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