Talking to boys about body image
Split Banana Blog
by Anna Alexander
1M ago
(and how we can do better) At 2.50 pm on a hot Friday in July, I was sitting in the Humanities' office, counting down the minutes until freedom. I heard a dreaded knock on the door: a student had been sent out of his class. Could I move him? Too exhausted to take him to another classroom, I tell Wafiq to pull up a chair and tell me why he's been sent out. He said he'd been picked on by his teacher for sharing his beliefs. I ask him what these beliefs are. His response is 'that Andrew Tate is a good role model'. I take a deep breath in and exhale slowly. This was the summer term of 2023, and A ..read more
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5 Key Moments in the History of Families
Split Banana Blog
by Anna Alexander
2M ago
How families have changed in the last 100 Years. Families play a vital role in all of our lives. The last 100 years has seen the most advancement in our family units, how we create them, how we talk about them and how the law + society recognise their status. New forms of families have become possible through technological developments, changing social attitudes, and more representative policies and legislations for families. Most significantly, we see changes for LGBT+ parents and those using assisted reproduction. Non-normative, non-traditional families were legally recognised during this ti ..read more
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How can I support my teenager’s learning about relationships and sex?
Split Banana Blog
by Anna Alexander
4M ago
A guide for parents, guardians and caregivers of teenagers Watching our children transition into teens and adulthood is a privilege. Watching them grow into happy individuals with healthy relationships is even better. These transformations can bring amazing - yet complex - issues for your teen and can feel overwhelming for everyone involved. We know that most parents, caregivers and guardians (for the readability of the blog, we'll refer to this expansive group as parents from now on) are keen to support their teenager's learning, because educating our children helps them make the right decis ..read more
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8 Mental Health Tips for Parents + Educators
Split Banana Blog
by Tasha Mansley
5M ago
How might we describe mental health? In our creative workshops for young people, we describe mental health as “how a person’s mind and wellbeing is” and we recognise that “it affects emotional (how we feel), psychological (how we think), and social (how we act) well-being”. We normalise that they will probably feel a mixture of comfortable and uncomfortable emotions daily and that there will be good weeks alongside more difficult ones. Because of this, our role as educators is to build their emotional literacy: to identify how they are feeling and why, and reflect on whether there is anything ..read more
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Trans-inclusive RSE is under threat: What can you do?
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
6M ago
RSE in the headlines In case you haven’t been following, a lot has been going on in the world of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). We’ve experienced media backlash, seen misinformation being shared and are witnessing a total politicisation of the subject. We love - and are proud of - the work we do at SB. But we’ve been operating amidst an extremely challenging backdrop. To be totally honest, it’s been quite an overwhelming time for our team. The topics we cover - things like relationships, identity, sex, body image, consent to name a few - are emotive and personal. To have our work and a ..read more
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Healthy Conversations to have with Young Men
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
7M ago
A blog for educators, parents and caregivers, written by Donny, an SB facilitator I’m Donny (he/him), one of Split Banana’s relationship and sex educators. I’ve been in classrooms for a long time, and I’ve been a man for much longer. I’ve worked with kids in a wide range of spaces, including in sex and relationship education. Contrary to some popular discourse, I think it’s an exceptionally hard time to be a guy. That isn’t to diminish the violence that women and trans people experience. But I’ve spent the last 10 years in classrooms with young men, and I’ve seen that they experience pressing ..read more
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Our new Changes workshop
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
8M ago
How to deliver inclusive puberty education A blog for educators This summer, we tested out our brand-new Changes workshop, which focuses on the changes that young people might experience during puberty. We decided to call it Changes because it is an accurate describer of what - I’m sure we can all agree (!) - is a pretty tumultuous time for tweens and teens. Focusing on changes can help young people to accept and prepare for other periods of change which are likely to happen during the course of their lives. Our approach for this workshop centres around: Non-gendered language. This ensures t ..read more
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Fighting for LGBTQIA+ inclusive education across the curriculum
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
9M ago
It’s not a topic, it’s people’s lives. We often get requests from schools to deliver a stand-alone assembly on ‘LGBT issues’ (especially during Pride month). This language of ‘LGBT issues’ is present within the government guidance. Quite frankly, it’s not good enough. We believe: The acronym should be expanded to LGBTQIA+ to reflect the diversity of the community (more on a full list of terms here) It should be described as ‘experiences’ instead of ‘issues’ (yes, we need to talk about discrimination that the LGBTQIA+ community faces, but we also need to actively uplift and celebrate queer ..read more
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Our response to recent coverage of Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
1y ago
The RSHE Review  RSHE has been in the news recently, after the Prime Minister announced on 8th March that the Government will review their statutory guidance this year. To be clear, this was already scheduled within the 3-year cycle which was initially agreed to when the guidance was first published in 2019.  We welcome the review of the guidance. It’s important that the guidance is monitored regularly to ensure it’s being implemented effectively across schools. Additionally, it must respond to the increase in misogyny, online hate and anti-LGBTQIA+ discourse and behaviour that young ..read more
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Split Banana’s Inclusive Language Guide
Split Banana Blog
by Lilli Chambers
1y ago
Language is important. Especially right now. Language has a huge impact. It influences how: We describe our own feelings and identities. We relate and empathise with one another. We understand the world around us. Historically, within education, we’ve seen how language can be used as a tool to restrict people’s freedom. Most prominently seen through Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which banned local authorities and schools from ‘promoting homosexuality’. Note the use of ‘promoting’ here. When we’re teaching history, are we ‘promoting’ war? When we’re teaching Religious Stu ..read more
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