Straight Talking Peer Education employs teenage parents to educate pupils and raise awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation, healthy and unhealthy relationships and the realities and implications of early parenthood. Our courses have been independently evaluated to be effective in making students listen to, hear and remember our message.
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention
Teenage pregnancy has a serious and direct impact on secondary education. Statistics show that 40% of teenage mothers leave school without any qualifications, and many are still on benefits at age 30. Risk indicators for teenage pregnancy are high levels of deprivation, low educational attainment and low aspirations for the future.
Despite the drop in teenage pregnancy rates, there were 59,815 teenage conceptions in 2015 (ONS, 2017), the highest in Western Europe. With high-risk indicators in the borough, now is the time for proactive decisions.
Our comprehensively trained teenage mothers and young fathers draw on their personal experiences, enhancing the structured but interactive curriculum, to help pupils understand:
• the responsibility of parenting and the impact on their social life
• the loss of childhood
• life in poor accommodation
• the financial hardships
• the effects on their future
Our courses have been found to be “effective and [have] an immediate and sustained impact on young people’s views and understanding of teenage pregnancy and parenthood”. (Deloitte, 2016)
“We have been using Straight Talking for a number of years and have always found them to deliver valuable, informative and expert advice to our pupils. The speakers are willing to share their experiences in an impartial manner. The pupils have commented on how their perceptions have been challenged; many have said that their views on the topic have changed considerably as a result of the Straight Talking performances / role-plays / question-and-answer sessions. Staff have also been complimentary about the sessions and have praised the way in which the speakers have quickly developed a rapport with the groups and have been able to answer questions that the pupils have asked. As Head of Department I feel that these sessions have really complemented my work on the topic of teenage pregnancy and I look forward to using the company again next year.”
Chris Walsgrove
Head of PSHE
The Heathland School (Hounslow)
2015
https://www.straighttalking.org
