Pupils helping to tackle gender-based violence in Scottish schools

Pupils across Scotland are taking part in a scheme aimed at tackling gender-based violence in schools.

The Mentorship in Violence Programme (MVP) was developed by Education Scotland in 2011 and is now being run in 210 schools across 30 local authorities.

At West Calder High School in West Lothian, fourth year pupils are now mentors to first years and are teaching them about relationships.

West Lothian Council has the programme running in all of their secondary schools, covering a range of topics including sexting, controlling behaviour, coercive control, domestic abuse and consent.

Mentor Jacob said they teach pupils about these topics to help spread awareness of such issues.

Fourth-year pupils at West Calder High School are delivering lessons on gender-based violence STV News

Crucially, the mentors say the programme shows first year pupils they are there to talk to them if they’re not comfortable going to a teacher.

Martin Berginis, child protection officer for education services at West Lothian Council, said the content being delivered will help shape their future relationships.

He said: “The content being delivered means the young people are getting skills and knowledge they can use right now in their relationships as teenagers.

“But just as importantly they can then use that skill, that knowledge, when they become adults in their relationships and hopefully not become involved in abusive relationships – whether they are the perpetrator or the victim.”

While 13 councils have the programme running in all of their secondary schools, there are now calls for all schools to be doing MVP.

Scottish Labour MSP Katy Clark says the problem of gender-based violence in schools is prevalent and there is still a long way to go to tackle the issue.

She told STV News: “There’s absolutely no doubt that we have a long way to go before we ensure we are actually dealing with this appropriately in a school setting.

“It’s a problem across the country in primary schools and secondary schools and we need to make sure we have cross campus strategies to deal with this issue.

“But we actually recognise that this can occur in any classroom, in any playground, indeed on the way to and from school across Scotland, and we need strategies that address that and make sure that staff and others are equipped to know how to deal with these problems when they arise.”

Participation in MVP at the school has nearly doubled since last year with teachers saying they’ve noticed an increase in incidents being reported.

Kenneth McKenzie, principle teacher of wellbeing at West Calder High School, says the response has been so good they now have first year pupils aiming to go from mentees to mentors.

But both mentors and teachers say they face an uphill battle as so-called online misogynist influencers continue to grow on social media.

Mr McKenzie said: “These influencers seem to be quite outspoken and it looks good, and it comes across well but actually they can be really harmful because there’s no context around that.

“So actually what they feel and what they think is normal isn’t actually, and when you start to have these conversations with young people and they start to speak to other people they realise they don’t believe in what they’ve seen.

“So it makes a huge difference for young people being able to have those conversations.”

Teachers and local authorities are now hopeful the lessons learnt from the programme will resonate in the community.

West Lothian has one of the highest rates of domestic abuse in the country but officials say they believe a cooperative approach can help everyone and not just those in the classroom.