1st Edition
A Practical Resource for Supporting Children’s Right to Feel Safe
For effective use, this book should be purchased alongside the storybook - Something Has Happened: A Storybook. This programme of activities, created to be used alongside the storybook, Something Has Happened, has been designed to help children develop their own internal measure of safety, and teaches them how to ask for help if they feel unsafe.
The sessions and activities in this book directly correlate to episodes in the storybook Something Has Happened, covering the fundamental aspects of safeguarding as well as elements of the Protective Behaviours (PB) process. Taking adults and children through a wide range of discussion points and activities, all underpinned by clear guidance, it acts as a starting point to help children understand that being safe from harm is the most important right they have and that the trusted adults around them will always take action to believe and protect them.
Key features of this resource include:
- Session plans that directly link to events in the Something Has Happened storybook
- Clear, detailed and accessible activity plans that can be used with whole classes, small groups or with individual children
- Photocopiable activity sheets
With a concise and accessible introduction to the right to feel safe and Protective Behaviours, this is an invaluable resource for teachers, support staff and other professionals working with both primary and lower-secondary aged children.
Introduction Session 1 Feeling Safe Session 2 My Safety Scale Session 3 Let’s Help Joe Session 4 My Network Session 5 Don’t Give Up Session 6 Feeling Safer Appendices Appendix 1 – Body Outline Appendix 2 – Feelings Alphabet Appendix 3 – My Safety Scale Appendix 4 – Safety Scale Cards Appendix 5 – Safety Scale Situations Appendix 6 – I Feel Safe When…. Appendix 7 – Top 10 Activities Appendix 8 – Leaf Template Appendix 9 – Network Template Appendix 10 – Network Bookmark Appendix 11 – Network Invitation Appendix 12 – Persistence Cards Appendix 13 – Being A Helpful Friend Appendix 14 – My Safe Safe Appendix 15 – We all have the right to feel safe poster Appendix 16 - Breathing, Relaxation and Waking up!
Biography
Liz Bates is an independent education consultant. She supports both primary and secondary schools in all aspects of Emotional Health and Wellbeing, and Safeguarding, including whole school approaches, training staff and delivering talks to parents. Liz is a Protective Behaviours Trainer, a Wellbeing Award Advisor for Optimus and a regular contributor at national conferences.
"Something Has Happened is a valuable and practical safeguarding resource for all professionals who work with children. It covers key themes about feeling and being safe in a detailed, yet engaging, way. The reading book can be used as a standalone resource with clear language and charming illustration, but when combined with the lesson plans and resources it becomes an even more powerful tool to empower children to recognise their own feelings of safety or otherwise and to act upon those feelings appropriately to safeguard themselves.Staff are clearly guided through the lesson plans, with suggestions of appropriate language to use to draw out the main protective behaviours themes and useful photocopiable resources are provided. The fact that we never learn what Joe's "worry" is helps to make the resource universal - it can be used in the curriculum to support children with common worries, through to things that require an "Early Help" approach with other agencies, through to serious disclosures of abuse and neglect. Giving children the language and permission to talk about their worries in this way is both powerful and positive."
Jo Perrin, Lead Safeguarding Adviser, Services For Education
