Students launch their own campaign against child sexual exploitation

Pupils from The Downs School in Compton have designed leaflets and postcards to help raise awareness of child sexual exploitation (CSE) amongst young people in West Berkshire.

West Berkshire Council worked with a group of pupils to explore the issue of the sexual exploitation of young people. The pupils learnt about what child sexual exploitation was, critiqued existing materials and then developed their own ideas for a campaign to raise awareness of the issue.

The pupils have produced posters and postcards on the theme that young people could be exploited through their phones or online gaming. The materials have been shared with secondary schools across the district and the pupils have also spoken about their project in a short video: https://youtu.be/IOZWPxs3B7w

Speaking about the project Nikki Davies, West Berkshire Council’s Health and Wellbeing in Schools Officer, said: “It was fantastic working with these pupils and watching them explore a difficult, but important, issue and come up with some great posters. They were very enthusiastic and showed some great creativity and I’m sure their campaign will resonate with young people at other schools as well.”

Councillor Dominic Boeck, Portfolio Holder for Education, added: “As a Council, one of our priorities is around safeguarding and this project will help students know how to stay safe when they are communicating with other people online. It is a very worthwhile initiative and I’m grateful to the students for all the effort they clearly put in to come up with these ideas.”

Mr Prosser, Head Teacher at The Downs School said: “I’ve been so impressed with the mature attitude of this group of students whilst they’ve been tackling this sensitive and difficult area.    They have put so much energy and enthusiasm into a topic that is so relevant with young people today.

“It’s been a real learning curve for them in the production of the resources from the ideas, creation to the high quality finished product which I’m sure will be well-received across West Berkshire schools. I’m very proud of their achievements.”

The materials have been launched today in support of National CSE Awareness Day. CSE is a form of sexual abuse that involves the manipulation and/or coercion of young people under the age of 18 into sexual activity. National CSE Awareness Day is an opportunity to highlight the issues surrounding CSE and encourage everyone to think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children or children developing inappropriate relationships with other children.

You can watch the pupils talking about their project on our YouTube channel.