Calling It Out - One Year On

WHERE IT ALL STARTED

In January 2022 we launched Calling It Out, a theatre in education programme on harmful sexual behaviours and sexual assault. The programme was created in response to the increased focus of tackling sexual harassment in schools.

A 2021 Ofsted report stated that:

• ‘Sexual harassment occurs so frequently that it has become commonplace'.
• 90% of girls, and nearly 50% of boys, said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers.
• 92% of girls, and 74% of boys, said sexist name-calling happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers.

We consulted with over 50 professionals and organisations including Birmingham RSVP, Michael Conroy the Founder of Men at Work, Simon Blake at Mental Health First England (and co-founder of #Yesallmen) and Jess Phillips MP, as well as over 500 young people through surveys and focus groups.

The Calling It Out programme consists of a live theatre performance, interactive character interviews followed by class size discussion workshops. We also created extra lesson plans, assessment sheets and a filmed version of the drama.

STATISTICS AND FUNDERS

From January 2022 to February 2023, Loudmouth teams have delivered 215 sessions of Calling It Out to over 30,000 young people. We are appreciative to every school, college and venue that has booked Calling It Out, and we’ve had a successful year working with a range of funding organisations, including:

• Umbrella (Sexual Health Services, Birmingham & Solihull)
• Sandwell Council
• Cannock Chase Council
• Dudley Public Health
• Richmond & Wandsworth Borough Councils
• Merton Borough Council
• Telford & Wrekin Council (Community Safety Partnership)

STUDENT FEEDBACK

We routinely collect student feedback to evaluate the content and gauge the impact of the session. After taking part in a Calling It Out session, of the young people that completed evaluations:

• 89% rated their knowledge of sexual harassment as good or excellent.
• 90% felt confident or very confident calling out sexual harassment.
• 96% agreed with the statement ‘Men and women should be treated equally’.
• 77% thought they will act or behave differently in the future.
• 98% would recommend this session for next year’s students.**

Some young people took the time to feedback what they will strive to do differently as a result of seeing the programme:

“I will begin to tell friends about why these things are wrong and call them out.”

“I will start to have more of a realisation of sexual assault/ harassment. I will also make women feel more comfortable and will try to help them.”

STAFF FEEDBACK

It is worth noting that it isn’t just the young people who have benefited from our sessions. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from schools and professionals with 88% of staff who provided feedback agreeing that the programme had “high” or “considerable” impact on their groups, and 82% feeling that the programme had ”high” or “considerable” impact on staff at their school/venue.

We have collected all the feedback we have received from school staff over the past year and listed some of the responses below:

• On a scale rating of poor, below average, above average and excellent, 99% of staff rated the programme “above average” or “excellent”, with 83% of staff rating the programme as “excellent”.
• 99.5% of staff said they would recommend Calling It Out to other schools and organisations.

“[Calling It Out] raises awareness of current issues, making students reflect upon their behaviour and attitudes towards unhealthy relationships, sexting, personal safety and support for victims.”

“Excellent performance backed up by frank discussion in a safe and open environment.”

“Raised issues that are prevalent to students. Useful for staff to see current issues and ways of talking to students about it.”

THE FUTURE

The topics that Calling It Out approaches are no less important one year on. With the concerning rise in popularity of misogynistic online influencers, there is an ongoing discussion in the safeguarding community of how best to tackle such a complex issue. We believe that Calling It Out is a useful tool to begin approaching this discussion and provides a safe platform to challenge unhealthy opinions. We are continuing to update Calling It Out and all the related content to keep in line with organisations such as the PSHE Association and the Sex Education Forum, as well as working closely with campaigns such as End Sexism in Schools, to help keep places of education a safe place for all. We are also working with existing and new funding organisations for some very exciting upcoming projects in 2023 so watch this space for updates.

HOW DO I BOOK OR FIND OUT MORE?

If you are interested in booking Calling It Out for your school, you can fill in an enquiry form on our website. Or, if you’d like to speak to someone from our lovely office team, you can call us on 0121 446 4880.