Taking a holistic approach to prevention

ESAS has been developed in partnership with schools to help prevent and tackle gender-based violence.

It adopts a whole school approach, embedding consistent messages and approaches across every aspect of school life, continually building and reinforcing messages that challenge violence and promote gender equality – across the curriculum, in everyday interactions between staff and students, in policies and procedures and in the culture and ethos of the school community.

Young people are key agents of change, working in partnership with staff to identify key issues for the school and creating initiatives to tackle them. Teachers are supported through training and a wide range of materials to develop their understanding of gender-based violence - that it is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality and must be approached hand-in-hand with efforts to tackle gender stereotypes and gendered power imbalances.

In this way teachers can support whole school approaches through the curriculum, through everyday interactions with young people and in the ways that they respond if they encounter issues relating to gender-based violence or if a young person or fellow staff member discloses something to them.