The safety of our students is of the utmost importance to OneSchool Global. The OneSchool Global education program, OSGAware, aims to ensure students are equipped to prevent themselves becoming perpetrators or victims of abusive relationships.
The program is delivered over three half-day immersive workshops for students from year seven through to final year, with the maturity of content tailored to age groups.
The scenario-based learning program aims to cover four main areas:
- Encouraging students to understand: what a healthy relationship is, safety online, and managing unsafe situations for themselves and others.
- Teaching students about the warning signs (red flags) of controlling behaviour, bullying, coercion, violence, abuse, and what consent means within their relationships, including online
- Giving guidance on how to say “NO”, remove themselves from risky situations and,
- Directing them to places for help and advice, and know to report concerns to a trusted adult.
“When this program was put together, we knew it needed to be scenario-based and in the context of students’ everyday lives. Students must recognise ‘this could happen here, it could happen to me and it could be happening to my peers’, said Matt Phillips who took on the role of Global Director of Education at OneSchool Global in 2021. “We don’t shy away from serious issues that children and young people could face – the issues of ‘grooming’ and ‘unwanted touch’ being just two examples.”
A key phrase underpins the programs, ‘NO. GO. TELL’. Students rehearse throughout the program to ‘Say NO. GO away from the situation, and TELL a trusted adult’.
The sessions are delivered by OneSchool teachers, who are all trained and prepared, and who know the students. The critical themes are revisited at least three times per year, which aims to keep the message fresh in students’ minds.
“Students’ awareness and alertness to the red flags of risky situations must become a golden thread through the life of all schools, in all contexts,” said Phillips.
Using scenario-based learning means students become more and more confident to analyse situations that we present to them, and increasingly quick to notice red flags. That instinct transfers to situations they experience in real life, which is exactly what OneSchool is aiming for.
“By the end of the final workshop, students watch a scenario on video, are asked to identify all the red flags and to provide advice on what the characters should do. Because of all the learning they have done, you can hear a pin drop during the video as students realise and work out that these things could actually happen to them. We have found they get really focussed on what they can do individually and collectively to stay safe and to lookout for their peers,” said Kimberley Hutton, Regional Principal in the UK.
As OSGAware continues to roll out across the globe, OneSchool is seeing the positive effects of the program, with students feeling more aware of ‘red flags’ and comfortable to raise concerns with OSG staff..
“The most important thing we can do is listen to the children and notice even the smallest cues. Seemingly small details can add to a bigger pattern that helps us keep a student safe. We know that taking every concern and report seriously often prevents a situation from escalating and gets support to children and families as soon as it is first needed. This must be a priority for us in every Campus, every day,” said Matt Phillips.
The OSGAware program is continually evaluated to make sure current trends in student safety are included. Students’ understanding and engagement are also assessed, which allows us to further develop areas that students feel should be more of a focus.
By the end of 2023, more than 5,400 students will have completed the program across 125 campus and 20 countries.
