The new Toolkit includes assembly ideas, teacher training tips and student campaign materials, and is suitable for educators with an interest in or a responsibility for PSHE, Health & Wellbeing or Personal Development & Mutual Understanding with students aged 11 to 16.
The Be Real Campaign will also reward schools that are committed to supporting and promoting body confidence with a Be Real Campaign school badge. Schools can use the badge on their stationery, website and other materials to share their achievement across the community.
These new resources are launched in light of new research on body confidence from the YMCA, a founding partner of the Be Real Campaign. Somebody Like Me surveyed 2,000 young people aged 11 to 16 and found that almost a third (30%) of 11 to 16 year-olds isolate themselves because of body image anxiety.
However, the charity also found that three quarters of young people (76%) who learnt about body confidence in school said it made them feel more positive about themselves.
“The Be Real Campaign Toolkit is a vital resource to help us go beyond our current approach to body confidence,” said Julie Hunter, Assistant Headteacher at Bradon Forest School in Wiltshire. “By making curriculum links beyond PSHE, the Toolkit ensures a broader buy-in from teaching staff, who need to build their confidence in tackling this issue.
“For me it’s about enabling teachers to use accurate language so they’re confident when delivering these lessons. Equally it’s vital that we make students aware of this issue. We work hard to make students aware of their own mental health and wellbeing, so the Toolkit fits into our ethos as a school.”
The Be Real Campaign is a national movement of individuals, schools, businesses, charities and public bodies campaigning to change attitudes about body image, helping all of us put health above appearance and be confident in our bodies.
Read more about the Toolkit and Be Real Campaign at www.berealcampaign.co.uk.