January Update from our Sexual Violence Prevention Worker

Happy New Year and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026!

This month has been such a changeable time due to the spell of winter weather at the start of the new year, which ultimately affected Sexual Violence Prevention Workshop delivery. Student safety was paramount and I am delighted that those workshops were able to be rescheduled; thank you to Elgin Academy and UHI Moray for working through new delivery dates.

As always, it has been a joy to work with students and staff within Elgin Academy for a new round of workshops for a number of S1 and S4 participants. I also had the opportunity to be present at a lunch time meeting for those young people interested in learning more about the Equally Safe At School strategy (please click the link to be directed to the ESAS website for further information).

This group of student representatives have the opportunity to work together with fellow students and staff members, to address areas of school that they have identified as being areas where incidents of Gender-based Violence (GBV) can be prevalent. ESAS is underpinned by principles of equality, safety, and accessibility, with student voices at the forefront to help schools build a positive culture in which students and staff work together to prevent GBV.

This leads on nicely to letting you know I have begun my series of workshops in UHI Moray to introduce GBV and Sexual Violence Prevention. This is a bespoke workshop designed for students to have a safe-space amongst peers to have the opportunity to learn new things in a supported environment. Once all the workshops have taken place, I would like to share the student’s feedback, but here are a couple of accounts thus far:

“Informative, not overwhelming. Overall great presentation, thank you”.

“Very interesting. Learned a lot of things I didn’t even think was sexual abuse”. 

“Educational”. 

“Helpful”. 

“Interactive”. 

I am thoroughly enjoying my time in UHI Moray with such a wonderful group of Moray students, and I look forward to updating you further at the end of this month.

The Sexual Violence Prevention Programme runs throughout the year during a High School’s PSE lessons. For more information about the programme, please visit our website.