Children taught to ‘speak out and stay safe’
VOLUNTEERS from the NSPCC are teaching thousands of children across Greater Manchester how to ‘Speak Out, Stay Safe.’
The programme sees specially trained volunteers go into primary schools to speak to children about a range of issues – from bullying and neglect to sexual abuse.
This week they visited Holden Clough Primary School in Ashtonunder-Lyne to give assemblies and workshops for youngsters aged four to 11.
Helen Redman is the NSPCC coordinator for the area, and she recruits and trains the volunteers.
She said: “The idea is to raise awareness of the different forms of abuse and to make children aware of all the different people they can speak to.
“The scheme has been running for about six years and we have been to around 70 per cent of the primary schools in Greater Manchester, so we must be well into the hundreds of thousands in terms of the number of kids we have reached.
“It is a free service and most schools will get a visit from us two or three times, so the kids will see it more than once which reinforces the message.”
Angie Atkins has been a volunteer on the scheme for around four years.
She said: “I saw it advertised and I thought it sounded really interesting and worthwhile.
“Especially recently there seems to be something in the news every day about a child being abused. Kids often don’t know who to speak to or what is happening to them.
“For children to be given the message that this is not ok, hopefully they will have the courage to speak out.”
The volunteers ran two assemblies at Holden Clough; one for the Key Stage 1 pupils (aged four to seven) and the other for Key Stage 2 (aged seven to 11).
The session for the younger pupils focused on what children should do and who they can talk to if they don’t feel happy or safe, for example if they are not being looked after properly or someone wants them to do things with their bodies that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
With the older children the concept of sexual abuse was introduced, as well as neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and bullying.
The M.E.N. has teamed up with the NSPCC to give all young people, no matter their circumstances, the chance of a brighter future. A £4 donation could pay for a counsellor to answer a call, and all readers have to do to back the campaign is send a simple text message. Please help Childline be there for every young person who desperately needs support. Donate £4 by texting ‘NSPCC 4’ to 70744 or visiting nspcc.org.uk/mirror.