On Friday 7th February, as part of our PSHE programme, we welcomed Saltmine Trust Theatre Company to Dame Elizabeth Cadbury to perform 'Filters' for pupils in Year 8 and 9. Saltmine have been touring theatre in education nationally since 1980, educating the next generation on current social issues and empowering them to make wise choices. Filters is a production and workshop which focuses on social media use, sexual harassment, consent, cyberbullying, AI, and pornography. These are sensitive topics, but they are delivered in an age-appropriate way. This powerful production aims to encourage pupils to take control of their own futures, to be encouragers and positive influences on each other. 

The statutory Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education guidance in secondary schools from the Department of Education states that by the end of secondary school pupils should know: about different types of bullying (including cyberbullying); online risks, including that any material someone provides to another has the potential to be shared online and the difficulty of removing potentially compromising material placed online; how to identify harmful behaviours online (including bullying, abuse, or harassment) and how to report, or find support, if they have been affected by those behaviours; the impact of viewing harmful content; and that specifically sexually explicit material e.g., pornography presents a distorted picture of sexual behaviours, can damage the way people see themselves in relation to others and negatively affect how they behave towards sexual partners.