Stand By Her- Schools & Colleges
Preventing VAWG, Misogyny and Sexism in Educational Institutions
Violence against women and girls has become an epidemic, with the government declaring it a ‘national emergency’ in 2025
The new Violence Agaisnt Women and Girls strategy invites everyone to consider the role they can play in addressing it. Schools have been identified as being positioned as frontline preventative infrastructure. , ensuring that young people are steered away from harmful misogynistic influences. The VAWG 2025 strategy focuses on prevention and tackling the root causes of abuse.
What the data shows about young people’s experiences
An Ofsted report in 2021 concluded that the prevalence of sexual harassment has been grossly underestimated, with young people saying it occurs so frequently that it has become ‘commonplace’. Misogyny is already affecting young people’s lives.
92%
37%
72%
4/10
What the VAWG strategy says schools need to do
Use funding and pilots linked directly to schools
The strategy includes £11 million for school-based programmes, including:
£5 million for a healthy relationship training pilot delivered by external providers.
£3 million for a teacher training fund to support curriculum delivery
Address harmful behaviours as safeguarding through external specialist support
A harmful sexual behaviours pilot launching from September 2026 will test in-school interventions, external specialist support, and targeted resources for young people displaying harmful or abusive behaviour. The strategy explicitly frames this as early intervention.
Embed VAWG prevention across the whole school
VAWG-related learning should run through the full school experience, not sit solely in RSHE lessons. This includes assemblies, training, workshops, mentoring, behaviour policies, and wider school culture, with a clear focus on preventing harm rather than responding after it occurs.
Train staff to intervene early and confidently
Teachers will receive specialist training to recognise, challenge, and respond to misogynistic attitudes, sexual harassment, and early signs of harmful behaviour among pupils. Early intervention is positioned as essential.
Work with specialist external providers
Schools are encouraged to partner with organisations with expertise in:
- Healthy relationships
- Misogyny and Sexism Awareness
- Bystander intervention
- Teenage relationship abuse
- Gender-based violence prevention
Prepare for universal healthy relationship education
All secondary schools are expected to deliver credible education on healthy and respectful relationships. This can be delivered through the revised RSHE curriculum, trained staff, or specialist external providers.
Stand By Her – Schools Preventing VAWG
Why Schools Need “Stand By Her”
The strategy specifically states that VAWG is preventable and that this must start before behaviours become criminal. It encourages accessing support from specialist providers,
Stand By Her tackles misogyny and sexism early, before harm escalates.
Since 2021 Communities Inc has working with colleges, universities, primary and secondary schools to support staff, teachers to engage directly with young people through honest, age-appropriate conversations and activities.
Stand By Her Training, Tailored to Your School’s Needs
Stand By Her is a highly rated and proven UK-based training programme that tackles misogyny and sexism.
Stand by Her aims to:
Influence attitudes, norms and behaviours
Prioritise early intervention to prevent escalation
Reduce the likelihood of harmful and abusive behaviour
Who is this training for
Primary Schools
Primary schools play a key role in early intervention, preventing harmful attitudes and behaviours from becoming entrenched, halting escalation and setting clear boundaries and expectations.
Secondary Schools
Secondary schools play a key role in challenging harmful attitudes and behaviours, preventing escalation and empowering young people with the knowledge and skills to address these when they occur.
Colleges/Universities
Colleges and universities play a key role in empowering students to recognise, challenge, and prevent harmful behaviours, while fostering a culture of respect and accountability across campus culture.
Teachers and Staff
Educators play a driving role in setting organisational culture, recognising and responding to harm directly, setting clear boundaries, and helping to create safe, respectful learning environments.
✔ Age-appropriate content for young learners.
✔ Interactive, engaging activities
✔ Relatable case studies
✔ Practical tools to recognise and challenge harmful behaviours
✔ Confidence to intervene early and appropriately
✔ Training and resources to support learning for staff, teachers, students and board.
Misogyny Doesn’t Start at 18
It starts in our schools, on our screens, and in the attitudes we let go unchallenged. Early intervention can stop it before it becomes a culture thats normalised.
Benefits of Stand By Her
⦿ Increase confidence to intervene
⦿ Be a more effective ally to women and girls.
⦿ Develop strategies and skills to act safely and effectively.
⦿ Work on real-life scenarios to practice.
⦿ Get resources and a handbook.
increased knowledge of safe bystander interventions.
more confidence to intervene when they notice harassment
more likely to report harmful behaviours and language
Backed by research. Proven in practice. Highly recommended by hundreds who’ve taken our training.
Explore our training
Testimonials
“Pitched perfectly. Clear, informative and great examples. Thank you.”
“Absolutely fantastic training. Thank you so much. Your work is so important.”
“Sham was fantastic. She kept me thoroughly engaged even though the session was long. Love it!”
how informed the presenter/presentation was and how she held the space for what can
be a very difficult topic. Keep doing you! Well done Brilliant speaker and valuable
training!’
how this can affect others and what I can do to help. I’ll carry what I got from this lesson
through Yr7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and the rest of my life’
engaging, relevant and impactful through practical examples. Every school should have
this training’
short time. Fabulous trainer and super insightful. It was thought-provoking, practical,
Thank you for an excellent session’
helping my friends/family, but to help everyone and not be afraid of standing up to
bullies and helping those affected. I feel more confident’
helping my friends/family, but to help everyone and not be afraid of standing up to
bullies and helping those affected. I feel more confident’
‘I enjoyed the session a lot. Very informative and intriguing. I am going to become a
more confident ambassador. Can we have a longer session?’
up to increasing hate in the world. I now feel there is something I can and will do.
Shamsher gave me the tips to feel more confident in being an active bystander both
professionally and personally’
training on the topic where action is encouraged and given a bigger vocabulary. I
thought this would be more difficult to attend but the trainer created a safe space and
made discussions easier. I wasn’t really sure what to expect of this training. I had heard
it was good, but now I know it is excellent!
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