Stand Up and Speak Out
Empowering Primary Pupils to Recognise and Challenge Inequality
Stand Up and Speak Out is a powerful PSHE drama workshop designed to help young learners understand, recognise and call out discriminatory language and behaviour with a key focus on sexism, controlling behaviour and the early roots of misogyny. This session supports Primary PSHE subject leads in delivering meaningful, curriculum relevant education that builds empathy, confidence and respectful communication among pupils.
Aligned with the latest statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education guidance, this session equips children with the language and practical tools they need to recognise harmful attitudes and to stand up safely when they see them. The updated guidance highlights the need for schools to protect children from misogynistic myths, unhealthy attitudes to power and control, and to begin building positive relationships from primary age onwards, before harmful stereotypes become embedded.
The workshop begins by creating a safe, inclusive circle where pupils are introduced to key terms in accessible language such as prejudice, empathy, bias, sexism, and discrimination. Through interactive discussion and drama, pupils explore how unfair judgments and assumptions can shape behaviour and why it matters to challenge them.
Using engaging green light red light activities, children respond physically and verbally to scenarios that reflect everyday interactions they might recognise. They explore what healthy friendship looks like, how sexist language or exclusion feels, and how controlling behaviour can affect someone’s sense of safety and belonging. The session gently highlights that assumptions about gender and roles often come from stereotypes seen in media and online spaces, and that these assumptions can lead to prejudice if we do not question them.
Stand Up and Speak Out introduces pupils to the concept of active bystanders by asking them to imagine different ways to respond when someone is being treated unfairly. They practise simple yet powerful responses using the words stop, think, act focusing on empathy, safety and support. In small groups pupils are challenged to discuss real life style scenarios to think about what is wrong and how they might respond, including recognising controlling language and sexist remarks.
By the end of the workshop pupils are able to recognise harmful or controlling behaviour, confidently call out sexism and inequality in their peer groups, and understand options for safe action. Stand Up and Speak Out reflects the curriculum’s emphasis on challenging stereotypes and building respectful relationships, giving schools a creative and supportive way to respond to the government’s call for early education that equips pupils to reject misogynistic myths and build equality and kindness into everyday interactions.
If you are looking to strengthen your school’s approach to equality, respect, active bystander education and the early prevention of misogynistic attitudes, Stand Up and Speak Out offers a practical, engaging and impactful session that supports statutory PSHE outcomes and helps pupils become confident, thoughtful and compassionate communicators.
Teacher Twilight Workshop
We are in the process of developing a teacher INSET to support teachers on how to support children to recognise and challenge Inequality. Please get in touch if you are interested.
