A team of Year 10 students have been doing terrific work this week using skills developed on the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme.

The MVP programme explores a series of ‘scenarios’ involving a range of behaviours, such as labelling, hate crime, manipulation and online abuse. Using a ‘bystander’ approach, individuals are not considered potential victims or perpetrators; instead, they are empowered to be active bystanders with the ability to support and challenge their peers in a safe way.

MVP is based on five core components:

• Exploring violence through a gendered lens;
• Developing leadership;
• Adopting a bystander approach;
• Recognising the scope of violent behaviour; and
• Challenge victim-blaming.

As Mentors, our student volunteers attend a training programme delivered in association with the Merseyside Youth Association, work with each other to practice their delivery sessions and then lead lessons to younger pupils in school.

This week during PSHE the teams delivered important sessions to students in Year 7. Standing in front of a class can be a demanding experience and our mentors can be proud of their delivery.