Navigating Respectful Relationships: Reflections from the RespectED Parent Forum
“When girls become women who value and demand respect, they challenge systems of inequality and injustice”
On Thursday 29 May, MLC School proudly hosted RespectED, a P&F sponsored parent forum. This community event brought parents, MLC School staff, experts, and guests from local schools together to explore one of the most pressing issues facing young people today: navigating respectful relationships.
The forum featured a panel of some of the most powerful voices in Australia, each of them leaders in respectful relationship education including:
- Katrina Marson, author of Legitimate Sexpectations and criminal lawyer
- Yasmin London, former police officer and digital safety expert
- David Kobler, Director of Your Choicez
- Cass De Nardis, Head of programs at Elephant Ed
- P&F secretary Raji Behi who initiated the idea for this collaboration with Andrew Taylor and Melissa Boyd from MLC School.
The night went too quickly as our expert panellists engaged in deep discussion about their motivations, experience, and practical advice for parents. There were several key themes and takeaways for all of us:
Early education matters! The forum underscored the importance of starting conversations about respectful relationships early. This article suggests that children as young as six may be accessing online pornography. The panel concurred and provided strategies about teaching our youngest children about body autonomy through the sense of touch, for example, asking them to verbalise the feeling of fabric on skin, as a subtle but effective way to empower and help them become more aware of their bodies and their ability to voice responses to touch.
Equipping young people early with knowledge about boundaries, consent, sexual wellbeing and emotional literacy, enables them to develop tools, skills, and values to recognise healthy versus unhealthy dynamics and the ability to advocate for themselves and others.
Tools like the ‘traffic light system’ were introduced to help young people assess how relationships make them feel: green; feeling safe, respected, and supported versus red; feeling anxious, controlled, or diminished.
However, the panellists all agreed that as a parent, the most important thing you can do is listen to your child. If they share something personal, the advice was that the best first response (no matter what they tell you) is “thank you for telling me”, followed by “how can I support you?” These responses build trust and provide a safe space for disclosure if needed.
The great news… while it can feel daunting, is that parents do not need to be experts! Open, non-judgemental communication is key. Creating safe spaces at home for children to reflect, question, and grow was a practical takeaway. Parents were encouraged to model empathy and curiosity, and engage ‘real-life’ social situation role-play to help their children navigate complex scenarios.
A worrying and growing trend for young people named by the panel was the normalising of using tracking tools and apps like Snap Maps to track each other’s location, especially in romantic relationships. Fuelled by the availability of technology and social pressure, tracking potentially lead to issues of privacy, trust and coercive control. Please discuss the use of these apps with your daughter.
The panel advised that boundary setting and early use of the word ‘no’ were ‘green flags’ – evidence of a healthy relationship. For example, if a young person’s friend or partner wants to spend time with them, they should be comfortable and experiment saying “no”, “I have to do my homework, or no, I’m spending time with my friends/ family etc” and having that ‘no’ be respected. A lack of respect of those boundaries is an early ‘red flag.’
The forum also addressed the broader cultural context, referencing recent media such as Netflix’s Adolescence and the controversial online game No Mercy, both of which sparked important discussions about the messages young people receive and the role of adults in challenging harmful narratives. A critical piece of advice to parents was that “If you don’t fill the silence in talking about sex and respectful relationships with your child, then someone else might fill the void” and unfortunately that might be a negative source like pornography. They said, “Even if you aren’t confident, it’s better that your child hears your voice than someone else’s.”
The role of parents and schools working in partnership was also a recurring message. ‘The village approach’ provides wrap around support of our young people. Whilst schools are uniquely positioned to lead preventative education, it is through collaboration with parents that these lessons take root.
RespectED is not a one-off event but part of our broader commitment to student wellbeing. Both our Kindergarten to Year 12 Wellbeing and PDHPE programs have developmentally appropriate respectful relationships content which lay a strong foundation on which parents can build. For more information about our school wellbeing programs, please contact Andrew Taylor in the Senior School or Joanne Sharpe in the Junior School. For questions about PDHPE curriculum content, please contact Sarah Papachristoforou Head of PDHPE.
Following the forum, this week we had sessions with Elephant Ed for Years 8 to 10. Our goal is that these early interventions will help shape lifelong attitudes. 100% of students in years 9 and 10 and 99% of Year 8 students gave the workshops a thumbs up, with approximately 96% of students across the three grades feeling more informed on the topics covered in each workshop.
We are grateful to all who attended and contributed to this important conversation. One of our parent attendees reflected: “This forum truly stands out and has made a deep impression. I want to thank the school for its strong stance on this, for unashamedly not shying away from difficult topics, and for promoting protective partnerships with parents in this space”. We must thank the P&F president Felicity Clemens, Raji Behi and the executive team who supported this event, recognising the importance of working collaboratively with us to educate our community.
For those who could not join us, we encourage you to explore the resources below featuring our panellists and open these discussions at home. Together, we can build a culture of respect, safety, and empowerment for all our young people.
Resources from our panellists:
– Melissa Boyd
Deputy Principal
– Andrew Taylor
Deputy Head of Senior School – Wellbeing