The Latest News from Our Pilots
Six days. 30 workshops. Nearly 1,000 students. The KS3 workshop phase of our Body Happy Schools pilots are complete!
Across our two pilot schools – All Saints Academy Plymouth and Brighton & Aldridge Community Academy we’ve had the privilege of working directly with students across the full Year 7, 8 and 9 year groups, running workshops which were co-facilitated by our peer advocates in Year 10.
Our Year 10 Peer Advocates - part of our peer advocacy programme
The workshops were highly interactive and discussion-led, with creative breakout activities. We explored media literacy (including a Year 9 debate about Minecraft vs Fortnite), AI and appearance, social media filters, “for you” pages and algorithms, the impact of “harmless” body-based banter, body gratitude and everyday advocacy.
Themes included:
Media Literacy and platform awareness - especially on social media
AI and appearance - how tech shapes our reality
Curating your social media feed - protecting your self-worth
Banter vs harm - knowing the line and impact it can cause
Practicing body gratitude, confidence and standing up for each other
These workshops form just one strand of our whole school programme, which includes facilitator-led sessions such as a professional development workshop for all staff, a peer advocacy programme for older students, a workshop and support for parents and caregivers, alongside access to our Body Happy Hub - an online resource suite packed with full schemes of work and individual lessons and resources for teacher-led learning in the classroom.
Youth-led advocacy is at the heart of The Body Happy Schools Programme and is a vital aspect of building classroom cultures of body respect. With this in mind, our workshops include a Body Happy Pledge activity, encouraging students to share a promise to themselves and others about how they will be a Body Happy Hero. These pledges are turned into a Pledge Board which the school keeps, acting as a permanent reminder of the collective work done during the sessions.
Examples of Body Happy pledges made during the workshops
“When people make appearance-based comments or bully, it’s like a rock falling into the ocean. At first it seems shallow, but it falls deep - and the ripples go wider and have a bigger effect too.”
Stand-out moments
There were so many powerful moments, including:
💛A student who was disruptive at first came back for another session – “it turned out I really enjoyed it, miss” – and stayed late to help tidy up.
💛Two girls stayed into breaktime to show us their projects, including an interactive self-esteem box - particularly special given one of the girls hadn't planned on even staying and joining the session at first.
💛A Year 8 boy who defended body-based jokes did a total U-turn: “I wouldn’t say that about someone’s skin colour or if they used a wheelchair, so maybe I shouldn’t say it about someone’s body size either.”
Creativity in action during a Body Happy workshop with Year 8 students
A core part of these workshops is giving the agency to these students to explore themes related to body respect in their own way. This includes a creative breakout activity. We offer guidance and support, but students can make this activity their own, taking it in a direction of their own choosing. From creative writing, musical performances and craft activities, we were so impressed with the ways students used this activity to embed learning behind the ideas they explored in the discussion and quiz aspects of the workshop.
Teachers thoughts and school impact:
Improving staff awareness and knowledge around body image and body respect is another vital aspect of our 360 degree whole school programme. Staff at both of our pilot schools accessing the whole school programme have attended our CPD workshop. This includes Sophie Messenger, Head of Year 7 at All Saints Academy Plymouth, who shared her insights from piloting the programme so far:
"As Head of Year 7, I’m incredibly proud to be part of the Body Happy Schools Programme. It’s such an important topic – not just for our students, but for me personally. Helping young people develop a positive relationship with their bodies and build confidence in who they are is vital, and it’s been amazing to see the impact the sessions have had across the academy. Molly brings a positive energy with her, which will have lasting impact."
The peer advocacy strand of the programme has led to some brilliant youth-led advocacy projects, including an assembly led by the Year 10 students, a “bully box” allowing for student reporting around body respect issues to their year heads, posters to be displayed around school - not to mention opportunities for co-facilitation with KS3 and parent and caregiver workshops. Our peer advocates have really stepped into their roles as leaders of body respect in their schools and shown what an integral role youth-led action plays in this subject.
We’ll be sharing full and detailed case studies from our impact evaluations as part of our website redesign over the next couple of months, but in the meantime you can follow along with our updates over on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Thank you for all your continued support, and if you are a funder, commissioner, or partner who supports our mission and wants to help drive positive change in body respect, then we would love to hear for you.
With this in mind, huge thank you to The People’s Postcode Lottery Fund, The Norman Family Charitable Trust and The Fair Education Alliance for supporting with delivery, pilot and core costs as we develop The Body Happy Schools Programme. And, of course to all those who’ve made generous donations and taken on fundraising challenges to help make this work happen.
Find out how you can get involved and support this work here.