“Ruby is desperately lonely and sad. She is only 11 but has already moved foster home 3 times.
I’m Tom, a primary school teacher and Ruby is one of my pupils. She has moderate learning difficulties and dyslexia and has been brought up in care. She is now settled in her latest foster placement.
Ruby struggles with schoolwork and sometimes misses school to hang out in the park with some of the older boys she knows. This is obviously very worrying for her foster parents and social workers.
When Rachel from Esteem started running Relationships and Health Education (RSHE) sessions for us, Ruby’s low self-esteem was very apparent. Rachel could also see that Ruby struggled with boundaries in friendships.
Ruby opened up during the sessions, and we discovered that she had been spending time hanging out with some older boys she met online. The school is worried that she is at risk of CSE* from certain things she has said in these RSHE sessions. (*Child Sexual Exploitation)
Ruby said in one session that she’d like not to work when she is older but will find a man to take care of her instead.
The sessions with Rachel have helped Ruby identify healthy (and unhealthy) friendships, and she’s learnt about consent and setting boundaries.
She’s also learnt strategies for not giving in to peer pressure due to her desire to belong, and ways to build her emotional wellbeing.
Ruby is anxious about transitioning to a larger school in September. When she made an ‘inside-out mask’ with Rachel, the outside said that she is ‘happy’ and ‘strong’ but on the inside she wrote ‘lonely’ and ‘deprest.’
That RSHE session helped her explore different coping strategies, like speaking with one good friend she has.”
Children with special needs like Ruby go through puberty and hormone changes, and have romantic feelings, just like their peers. But this is not always recognised and the overprotection of children with special needs actually makes them MORE vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Whereas Relationships Education content and teaching methods that is tailored to meet the needs of these children help them learn about body boundaries; saying yes and no; healthy and unhealthy aspects of relationships; setting boundaries in relationships; and dealing with peer pressure.