Public Hair and Unwanted Elections – The Joys of 31 Years of Delivering Puberty Education

Public Hair and Unwanted Elections – The Joys of 31 Years of Delivering Puberty Education

My Mate Fancies You, our puberty programme for primary schools, is 31 years old this year.

The 10 year olds we worked with in this picture back in 1995 are now incredibly 41! We know it has had an impact from the years of evaluations as well as having teachers, funders, employees and one time a stranger in supermarket…. come and tell us how they remember being taught about puberty through our visit.

It has been so much fun and an honour to have worked with over 100,000 children and young people with the programme and we have of course seen a lot of changes over 31 years. In 1995 there were no smartphones, social media or streaming and so the programme has had a lot of rewrites over 31 years. The essence of the programme has stayed the same though with a focus on the story of two friends and how they navigate growing up from 10 to 13.

The drama is always fun to perform, and it is great to see the initial giggles subside and by the time the workshops start they are discussing the issues and maturely using terms they have just learned as if they have always used them. Well, most of the time anyway.

We have had every version of slightly wrong terms from public hair, cubic hair and my favourite Rubik hair…to girls needing to use crampons for their periods and boys getting unwanted elections.

We even had a few months where we were confused by how many pupils thought that menstruation blood was blue. It took a while for it to dawn on us that it was because adverts in the 90s used a blue liquid to demonstrate pads and tampons.

We are very proud of the My Mate Fancies You programme and how it has sensitively helped children to make sense of the changes they are experiencing.

We would love to bring the skill and experience we have had over 31 years to support your staff and children this summer.

To find out more contact us on 0121 446 4880 or email us at enquiry@loudmouth.co.uk