The last half term has been supporting an amazing group of girls with learning disabilities to understand what the word consent means and what it looks and feels like in the real world. We have had some enlightening and really deep conversations around choice and making decisions for yourself. I believe that saying ‘yes’ is the easy option but saying ‘no’ is hard and unpredictable. For young girl, especially those with additional needs, saying ‘no’ is even harder. So we tackled this complex and tricky topic in a variety of ways, including:

WOULD YOU LIKE A CUP OF TEA? I’d seen some YouTube videos around offering a cup of tea and linking it to consent. So I used a tea pot and a cup and offered staff in the room a cup of tea. Some said yes and some no. I then asked if consent had been given and we spoke about this. One member of staff changed her mind…….was this ok? Could she do this? This lead to lots of examples being given and an ‘interesting’ conversation about consent v wellbeing. Lots of role play and examples were used to explore this in detail.

FRIES I’m a lover of Pinterest and came across a picture of a portion of McDonald’s looking fries with the word ‘fries’ meaning something linked to consent. So we used this as another tool to explore consent and used different language linking to the same topic.

PUPPETS I’ll introduce you formally to Jasmine and Tommy soon but the power of puppets always amazes me. I first came across this at a LUTON SENDIAS conference where a man with puppets was. Whilst people were mooching about the stalls he stood with an orang-utan puppet and just watched everyone. The puppet became real and we all started to watch him and quiet down. It was so powerful. In my own small way I am trying to do the same dn I’ve started with two small puppets called Jasmine and Tommy to role-play situations and have dilemmas for the group to solve.

The conversations took on the topic of marriage - lead by the girls and we had some great conversations about marriage and relationships. One student was very clear that she would not be getting married because it’s too expensive! We all chuckled about this one with lots of staff nodding in agreement. Ha ha ha.

So this is just a snap shot of some of what we have covered and how when trying to tackle the complex subject of consent. But the clear message was ‘yes’ (when given freely is YES and everything else is NO. Fact.