Freedom Project

Posted at 11:48 am on 5th July, 2017

At Flixton Girls School we pride ourselves on sharing good practice and in particular sharing with our students and staff the current issues around Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).

Our team of Safeguarding staff work in conjunction with Trafford Council staff including Alistair Black; Behaviour and Attendance Consultant, plus Julie Tweedale and Rachel Ward-Lilley; Freedom Personal Safety Team presenters, to explain to our students how to stay safe.

Freedom Personal Safety is a Community Interest Company (social enterprise) created in 2008 to give women the skills, knowledge and confidence to keep themselves safe. They were founded by personal safety specialists Elaine Howard and Julie Tweedale, who more recently extended their training to work with children and young people.

FGS agrees whole heartedly with their principle that everyone has the right to enjoy their lives without violence or abuse. Together we work hard to raise awareness, reduce risks and empower individuals to take control of their personal safety.

Prevention is the key to achieving this therefore a group of our year 8 and 9 students recently took part in a Freedom Personal Safety Project ‘Strong, Safe and Resilient’; consisting of a two day course followed by a one day creative session. The girls produced videos and posters to highlight CSE and awareness of grooming.

They then had the opportunity to present their work to the whole of year 8 during an assembly and made form time activities for students to complete. Their activities culminated in a presentation at FGS; of all their work in front of Alistair Black, Julie Tweedale and Rachel Ward-Lilley.

All attendees commented ‘How fantastic the presentations were and how all very professional everyone was in both during the course, creative session and public presentation. Very well done.’

Participants Olivia Scott and Ayla Bingham-Watts aged 14 years said ‘It was a great experience, good feeling to be able to support others and would definitley recommend the workshops to other schools.’

Olivia’s video for the project is being used in other Trafford schools via Alistair Black; as they were so impressed with the final production.