Rokeby School has worked with us since 2018 and, in 2022, became one of our first Healthy Relationships Champion Schools through completing our RE:SET Programme.

As an all-boys’ school, Rokeby has a unique opportunity to help boys and young men build positive, healthy connections. Their staff have worked hard to embed this learning throughout the school environment: from championing our work and messages, to modelling good communication, to setting up a Student Equalities’ group. During a two-day Healthy Relationships project, we saw students begin to create a generous and open space with each other; for example, when a classmate made a challenging comment about the role of the women in the household, his peers opened a compassionate debate about gender equality: seeking to educate, rather than isolate.

One group of students from Rokeby engaged particularly keenly with our use of drama to promote empathy and understanding for victims of abuse. Drawing inspiration from our existing scripts, and with wonderful support from their teacher, they devised a mature and sensitive scene depicting coercive control in relationships, which they performed to their peers and, subsequently, at our Annual Awards ceremony in 2022.

Rokeby’s staff and students have become brilliant advocates for healthy relationships, and we’re proud to have built such a strong relationship together.