Blog
January Update from our Sexual Violence Prevention Worker
Happy New Year and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026!
This month has been such a changeable time due to the spell of winter weather at the start of the new year, which ultimately affected Sexual Violence Prevention Workshop delivery. Student safety was paramount and I am delighted that those workshops were able to be rescheduled; thank you to Elgin Academy and UHI Moray for working through new delivery dates.
As always, it has been a joy to work with students and staff within Elgin Academy for a new round of workshops for a number of S1 and S4 participants. I also had the opportunity to be present at a lunch time meeting for those young people interested in learning more about the Equally Safe At School strategy (please click the link to be directed to the ESAS website for further information).
December Update from our Sexual Violence Prevention Worker
The Sexual Violence Prevention Programme workshops have been continuing this month, as we move ever closer to the end of term. It was especially joyful to be in classrooms during November as more Autumnal artwork was being displayed. One teacher had a giant homemade spider in their room!
November was also the month in which our Reclaim The Night March was held in Elgin to mark the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the start of the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring this theme into several workshops. Giving the young people of Moray a voice and platform to strive towards the end of Gender-based Violence (GBV) in their communities is an extremely important aspect of my work in schools.
I have also been beavering away developing a PowerPoint presentation for a series of bespoke workshops for UHI Moray/Moireibh around GBV in the New Year, and I am looking forward to delivering this over all three campus sites!
December sees the start of the wind-down for 2025 giving me opportunities for training and development of my knowledge, whilst finishing up one or two workshops in school before a very busy start for January 2026!
I’d like to wish you a safe, healthy and happy holiday period.
The Sexual Violence Prevention Programme runs throughout the year during a High School’s PSE lessons. For more information about the programme, please visit our website.
Human Rights Day
Today, the 10th December, is International Human Rights Day. It marks the end of the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender Based Violence and it celebrates the anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The declaration sets out the fundamental human rights that all people are entitled to be protected by and that all people and nations should universally protect. The core values of the UDHR are equality, justice, freedom and dignity.
This year’s theme is “Our Everyday Essentials” and it is a powerful reminder of how essential human rights are to everyday life in Moray, in wider Scotland and across the globe. The Human Rights Declaration enshrines the right to a safe, just and equal life, and this includes the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 25), which guarantees food, basic needs, and a healthy environment and the right to rest and leisure (Article 24), which allows time for well-being and connection with others.
Everyone has the right to food and basic needs.
Everyone has the right to safety and community.
October Update from our Sexual Violence Prevention Worker
The dark and cold autumnal nights are most certainly upon us now but October saw a lot of positivity within the classrooms of Keith Grammar as we embarked upon a series of the Sexual Violence Prevention Programme’s Consent workshops.
Once again, it is a privilege to facilitate great conversations with young people and to listen to them as they illustrate what life is like for them living in Moray. We discussed great talking points and ideas together and even with the two week school break, I managed to have workshops with classes from most Year Groups. Workshops are continuing there into November also.
The Sexual Violence Prevention Programme runs throughout the year during a High School’s PSE lessons. For more information about the programme, please visit our website.
Update from our Sexual Violence Prevention Worker
It is great to be back visiting some of Moray’s High Schools now that the new Academic Year has started and whilst the summer break gave me scope to continue my professional development, join webinars/seminars and bring my sexual violence prevention research together, nothing quite beats being back around the young people of Moray as the Sexual Violence Prevention Programme workshops resume.
Many S1 students are being introduced to the concepts of ‘Consent’ and ‘Power’ and our more senior year groups are developing understandings around ‘Sexual Violence’ and the role ‘Pornography’ and online content shapes our ideas about what we believe relationships should look like.
RSS