Respectful relationships & Learning Consent Co-education workshop with Sydney Grammar

On Friday 17 February all Year 11 and 12 students walked to Sydney Grammar School to take part in the first ever pilot program on Learning Consent in a co-educational space. The workshop was unique in that it was co-designed by Learning Consent founder and CEO Dr Joy Townsend and the student leaders from both schools, and then co-facilitated by Learning Consent and the team of student leaders. It focused on offering students the very valuable opportunity to have peer-led discussions around the issue of sexual consent, but more broadly, to listen to each other explore the often unspoken ‘grey areas’ of consent, and the gendered and social pressures that complicate young people’s navigation of respectful relationships.

While this innovative co-educational workshop was a new experience for all the senior students who had taken part. For the student leaders, taking on the responsibility of leading a discussion group of students with a partner leader from Grammar was an even more daunting task for the student leaders. Yet in the end, it was a great opportunity to be able to provide an environment to foster valuable discussions in every group and build a closer relationship between our two schools. 

The co-design process for this workshop started with an after school meeting with Dr Townsend at the end of Term 4 in 2022 and continued throughout two sessions in Term 1 2023 before the final workshop. In these sessions, around 40 student leaders from Year 11 and 12 at SCEGGS and Form VI at Grammar, were able to co-design and plan research driven, evidence based and youth centred consent education workshop for their peers. This was incredibly enriching for the student leaders who were able to think deeply about effective methods of consent education and what they thought was most important to touch on with their peers. 

Ultimately, all the students involved came away with a deeper understanding of the social narratives surrounding consent and how to apply learned skills in respectful relationships.

Georgia McCormack
Year 12