What do teachers think about Apause?

Apause is currently delivered in about 100 schools nationwide. Testimonies from some of the teachers who have worked with the programme can be found below - if you have any of your own comments about Apause, please let us know!

 

Devon:

We have now been delivering APAUSE to Yr 9 & 10 for a number of years. It has been an extremely successful programme and I would strongly encourage anyone to embark on this method of delivering Sex and Relationship Education. We are extremely privileged to have an excellent 6th form and the students are very keen to be involved in the delivery. The 6th formers remember having the APAUSE programme delivered to them in Yr 9, and are fully aware of the benefits of peer education, both for themselves and for the Yr 9 students. Our Yr 9 students continue to talk about the APAUSE programme and really engage in each session.

We are also lucky enough to have fantastic support from our local team of School Nurses, who have continue to deliver the sessions to both Yr 9 and 10. The students not only benefit from gaining knowledge from other professionals, but also respond extremely well to the format of the APAUSE programme with scenarios and group tasks.

Mrs R Vowles - Head of PSHE, Bideford College

Cumbria

Since 2002 Apause has gone from strength to strength within the school, with results speaking from themselves. There have been no teenage schoolgirl pregnancies at the school since the scheme started. As the benefits and quality of Apause became quickly apparent to senior management, the school decided to self-fund Apause, the only school in the country [at the time] to do so.
The school’s progress over the last twenty years was highlighted when it was given and “outstanding” OFSTED in 2006 ...the OFSTED inspection team made a special mention as to the Apause scheme and the part it plays in the development of the pupils.

John Herbert - Assistant Head Nelson Thomlinson School, Cumbria

Having spoken to all the staff involved, we all feel more than ready to deliver the material. Your training meant that we are now familiar with the structure and timing of the lessons and confident that we could deal with any scenario that year 9 or 10 throw up.
Many thanks again, especially for making the training fun, we all felt that it was an extremely valuable use of our time.

Lucy Stainsby - Citizenship/PSHE Co-Ordinator Nelson Thomlinson School, Cumbria

A Devon C of E School:

"I was trained in the old Apause delivery and it was good fun with the nurses. They had expertise and could deal with questions when they came up in whole class discussions. The new ApauseToo is much more structured, I had to work fast to keep to the timings. The small group work made it more private for them. You could deal with individual students' questions in the small group activities, but class discussions were more focused - much safer."

Jane Rowlands . Teacher - St Peter's School, Exeter

Hull, who have halved their teen pregnacy rate:

Hull has implemented the Apause programme in secondary schools across the city with it currently being delivered in 13 of the 14 schools with plans for the remaining school to come on board in the coming year. We are also looking at delivery via pupil referral units.

Hull has been running Apause now since 2006/7 and it is an integral part of the delivery which contributes to our work to reduce under 18 conceptions and improve young people's sexual health. We chose Apause due to the fact it is evidence based and had built in evaluation to monitor impact. However it also addresses the needs raised in our consultation with schools and young people. It has enabled Hull to provide consistent sex education across all schools and to provide PSHE and SRE teachers with comprehensive lesson plans which they have found very useful. It also delivered on the issues raised by young people e.g. constant information to them no matter what school they were at and also more sessions on communication and negotiation skills not just biology. Although initially hesitant, schools have fed back to us that they welcome and embrace the Apause scheme and that it meets their needs in terms of their requirement to deliver quality SRE to their pupils. We have also found that successful implementation of Apause in schools with rates of conception above the city average has contributed to these rates being successfully reduced. Apause is now part of the core offer of what schools are expected to provide in terms of quality SRE and contributing to the reduction of under 18 conceptions.

In Hull we have embedded implementation of Apause within the Healthy Schools team with their SRE lead being the person who leads on overseeing the running of Apause in schools. We also work in partnership with our local sexual health charity Cornerhouse who manage the peer education element of the programme.

As the commissioning lead for improving young peoples sexual health I am very pleased with the Apause programme and would happily recommend it to other areas.

Gail Teasdale - Hull PCT