Arc news: May 2014

Introducing Broadcast Junior - healthy relationships and online safety now available for primary audiences

Following the success of our Broadcast sexting and cyberbullying programme for secondary schools, we have now developed a brand new interactive theatre workshop for Primary Years 5 and 6.

Shocking new research* reveals that at least 44,000 primary school children access an adult website in one month alone: one in 35 of six to 11-year-olds in the UK going online. These startling results published this spring and widely publicised by the NSPCC, highlight the increasingly worrying scale of underage exposure to hardcore pornography online.

Broadcast Junior has been specifically created to:

• encourage respect, healthy relationships and personal responsibility
• highlight the differences between porn and real-life sexual relationships
• inform young audiences of the facts, figures and dangers surrounding sexting
• explore the very real and damaging consequences of cyberbullying
• raise awareness about the law and legal implications of sexting, cyberbullying and internet misuse
• equip young people with basic communication tools and reasoned arguments to enable them to make real change in their own choices and behaviours
• signpost who and where to turn to for help
• explore difficult and sensitive issues in a safe and inclusive environment.

Using Arc's highly powerful brand of interactive Forum Theatre, Arc can:

• deliver up to three, one-hour sessions in school (in one day)
• work with up to 60 Year 5 and 6 pupils per session (reaching up to 180 young people per day).

Using Arc's highly powerful brand of interactive Forum Theatre, our professional actors will play out an initial scripted scenario, presenting the audience with a scene which reaches a heightened point of conflict.  The audience is then divided and invited to take on the point of view of one of the characters, instructing them on how to play out the rest of the scene. The session will aim to reach a place of resolution where all can come together to achieve positive outcomes and understand the benefits of healthy lifestyles.  This highly engaging theatre technique allows the audience to explore difficult and sensitive issues in a safe and inclusive environment.

Broadcast Junior is available for block booking by local authorities and education providers, and to individual schools and youth centres. For prices, availability and further information, contact Natalie Smith, Education Director at Arc on 020 8595 8509 or email nat@arctheatre.com.

Download Broadcast Junior flyer (pdf, 328k)

 

*In December 2013, ATVOD (The Authority for Television on Demand) tracked the actions of children and teenagers using the internet from a desktop or laptop. Results published March 2014:

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Broadcast for secondary schools

sexting. The ‘exchange of sexual messages or images’ (Livingstone et al., 2011) and ‘the creating, sharing and forwarding of sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images’ (Lenhart, 2009), through mobile phones and/or the internet.

Quantitative research on the subject has found participation figures among young people in the UK as wide as 15-40%.  However, quantitative research alone cannot offer in-depth understandings about the nature or complexity of this contemporary form of sexual expression or activity.  (Information taken from the report on sexting for the NSPCC, 2012).

Arc has devised an original programme - Broadcast - specifically created to inform young audiences of the facts surrounding sexting, raise awareness about the law and consequences, signpost relevant services, and equip young people with basic communication tools and reasoned arguments to enable them to make real change in their own choices and behaviours.

For prices, availability and further information, contact Natalie Smith, Education Director at Arc on 020 8595 8509 or email nat@arctheatre.com.