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Active Bystanders

Hillcrest has joined Norfolk County Council, in conjunction with the Crime Commissioner's Office for Norfolk, to deliver the Bystander Intervention Programme to help deal with the issue of sexual harassment and abuse in our nation's schools and colleges.

The aim of the programme is to train and upskill children and young people to become active bystanders who can safely intervene to prevent incidents of sexual harassment. Several schools and colleges throughout Norfolk have enrolled in the programme since its formation and the feedback from them is very positive.

The school has benefited from whole staff CPD relating to the importance of challenging sexist language and the potential harm if goes unchallenged; lesson resources and plans to sit alongside the existing RSE/RSHE curriculum about sexual harassment and its impact; staff and student surveys; parental letters and the active bystander training lessons. Year 3 will learn to be Active Bystanders in the Spring Term, when they learn about stereotypes and prejudice.  Years 4, 5 and 6 will have refresher lessons each September, to reinforce the message that we stand up to inappropriate behavour and language at Hillcrest!

Hillcrest pupils are taught the 5Ds of being an Active Bystander:

These skills are supported by the 5Cs of Hillcrest's Independent learning approach. The programme will enable them to be confident when directly speaking to a perpetrator; creative in the way they distract a perpetrator; co-ordinated in the way they delay their help by offering support and by delegating and working with other pupils to stand against harassment of all kinds; and finally, they will communicate when they document the incident (either through writing or by speaking to an adult).