St Benedict's School welcomed Monica Boghal, Director of the charity, The Schools Consent Project (SCP), to speak to parents about consent workshops run at the school.

Ms Boghal spoke to student's parents about how they can best support their children by starting discussions about consent and how to make safe choices on Wednesday, 24 January.

St Benedict's has been proudly working with the SCP for several years; a charity which sends volunteer lawyers into schools to teach students the legal definition of consent and normalise conversations about consent to educate and safeguard young people.

Through their dedicated workshops, the SCP takes the legal definition of consent into schools to make it accessible and real for secondary school pupils by encouraging them to lead these conversations and empowering them with an understanding of their rights and responsibilities to support a wider cultural change.

Working closely with the SCP, St Benedict's School is able to create a unique curriculum which offers individually tailored age-appropriate workshops for students in different year groups.

Speaking about the benefits of these workshops, Luke Ramsden, Senior Deputy Head and Director of Safeguarding at St Benedict's School, stated, "The discussion of real-life examples, led by someone who is not their teacher and who is also an expert on the legalities of these scenarios, helps students to be more open and honest in their responses, and to ensure that all have a chance to fully participate."

Luke Ramsden, Senior Deputy Head and Director of Safeguarding at St Benedict's with Monica Bhogal, Director of Schools Consent Project (credit: St Benedict's School).

Consent is a topic that appears in the life of every pupil and young person in today's society.

As it can be such a sensitive subject, the legalities are often difficult to understand and engaging in non-consensual behaviour has real consequences.

During her talk to parents, Ms Bhogal, noted that according to recent data, reporting of sexual abuse and harassment is rare, but when it is reported, only 91% of rapes never get charged and, of those, only 2% of all recorded rapes result in a conviction.

Ms Bhogal emphasised the role parents play in equipping their children with accurate knowledge for healthy relationships, fostering confidence in legal rights, effective communication of boundaries, and mutual respect.

She said: "I was delighted to speak to St Benedict's parents about why consent conversations are so important and how they can be a preventative measure to help drive down sexual offending rates.

"By sharing examples of the tools and messages we use in our workshops with young people, hopefully, I have enabled parents to support and reinforce these discussions at home".

The Schools Consent Project is a charity which delivers sexual education workshops to schools across the UK (credit: St Benedict's School).

With one in every three women experiencing sexual violence during their lifetime according to the World Health Organisation, consent conversations are important to help drive down sexual offending rates believes Ms Bhogal.

Mr Ramsden concluded: "We were grateful that Monica Bhogal, Director of the Schools Consent Project, was able to come to St Benedict's to talk to our parents about this hugely important topic for our young people."

To learn more about St Benedict's School, click here and to find out more about the School Consent Project, click here.

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