The mayor of London has written to every primary school in London asking them to help counter the “pernicious influence” of misogynists such as Andrew Tate.
City Hall has funded a £1m programme to help educate children about healthy and respectful relationships as part of efforts to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG).
It follows a similar scheme for secondary schools and comes amid fears children as young as nine may be being regularly exposed to misogynistic content online.
Working with the educational charity Tender, the mayor’s office has produced online courses to help teachers run classes, workshops, drama and interactive sessions for children aged nine to 11.
Equality and respect
The programme is designed to be delivered by teachers, with the option of support from Tender’s specially trained workshop leaders, City Hall said.
However, the scheme is optional will not be part of the national curriculum.
It is aimed at helping youngsters to confidently recognise harmful or controlling behaviour, as well as call out sexism and inequality in their peer groups.
“It’s never too early to start educating young Londoners about the need to treat one another fairly and kindly,” the mayor said.
“We must ensure that young people are clear what healthy and respectful relationships are about before they start seeing content from individuals like Andrew Tate online,” he added.
It has been trialled by teachers at Seven Sisters Primary School in Tottenham, north London, among others.
Head teacher Emma Murray said broaching issues like misogyny and sexism with young children could be “really challenging”, but that it was a topic teachers had to be prepared to deal with.
Taiba, a Year 6 pupil said: “These sessions have taught us about what makes us good people. We talk about our equal rights and how we should treat people as well as how people should treat us.”
Another pupil, Ege, also in Year 6 said pupils were learning how to “look out for if we feel we are not being treated fairly or we are being pressured into something”.
The programme does not include pornographic or sexual content, City Hall said.
Susie McDonald, chief executive officer of Tender, said programme had been specially designed to target primary school children.
“It is often difficult to begin exploring topics like healthy relationships and gender inequality with young people of any age,” she said.
“By challenging potentially problematic attitudes at their root, we can prevent a culture of abuse against women and girls.”
BBC