Schoolchildren are set to be given lessons in how to counter misogyny and toxic masculinity amid the rise of influencers such as Andrew Tate.
The Independent understands that health and sex education (RHSE) guidance for schools will be updated at the start the next academic year to add sections on supporting healthy relationships and to help schools target harmful narratives that are spread on social media.
The guidance, which is still being updated, will also teach children at primary and secondary school how to navigate difficult emotions and have a focus tackling sexist content spread online.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer has expressed admiration for Stephen Graham’s Netflix series Adolescence about a teenage boy who is arrested for murdering a girl after being influenced by incel propaganda online.
As well as watching it with his two teenagers at home, he has supported a campaign for it to be shown in schools.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has been under pressure to overturn the draft RHSE guidance, put forward when the Conservatives were in power, which included plans to ban sex education for children under the age of nine, as well as discussion of gender identity.
The Independent has spoken to school leaders about the problems caused by harmful attitudes held by young men, with one headteacher warning parents not to brush their concerns about the growing influence of toxic masculinity under the carpet and to speak to people about it.
Michael Sullivan, head teacher of Forest Hill School for boys in Lewisham, had a message for parents who might be concerned about their sons: “Speak to your son, speak to his school, and don’t try and brush it under the carpet.
“I think that’s the worst thing you could do if you are concerned about something.
“Speak to the people who might be able to support you or your son or the person you’re concerned about to change that and for us to make sure that these things are openly discussed in a healthy way.”
Forest Hill School has worked with Beyond Equality, an education programme who run workshops on positive masculinity values, in response to the growing influence of Andrew Tate, the manosphere and toxic masculinity among teenage boys.
“As an all boys school, we have a duty to address the negative stereotypes that can sometimes be associated incorrectly with an all boys’ education.
“We want to make sure that we were proactively addressing some of the issues that were coming out with the toxic masculinity agenda.”
Mr Sullivan said that while he didn’t feel his school had a “particular issue” with toxic masculinity, the decision to work with Beyond Equality stemmed from wanting to “address it in a proactive way while boys are with us in the school.”
He isn’t the only teacher who has expressed the importance of addressing this issue. Clive Hill, a teacher at Meden School, Nottinghamshire, told The Independent that the sector had noticed a rise in sexist behaviour.
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“We’ve definitely seen a rise in the need to tackle those sorts of behaviours,” said the teacher, who got into education via TeachFirst. “That’s across several schools. It’s across the sector when I talk to colleagues at conferences.”
It became a personal issue for Mr Hill when his daughter, who attended a co-ed sixth form attached to an all boys school, was on the receiving end of misogyny with some “students outright praising Andrew Tate”.
Mr Hill said that part of the issue stems from within the school: “We don’t have enough role models in schools. We’ve got the issue with recruitment of where you need to be seen in the classroom for students to be able to relate to who they are.”
The latest figures from the Department of Education saw that men now make up only a third of staff at secondary schools, down from nearly half 30 years ago.
“I think to start off with the narrative around what positive masculinity is has got to come from males,” Mr Hill said. “It’s got to come from male teachers.”
He continued: “The narrative that we need to portray to young men is that they are the solution, not the problem.”
Adolescence has not only become a talking point in parliament, but in schools as well.
Educator Will Adolphy, co-founder of M-Path, which goes into schools delivering masculinity programmes, has already noticed the impact of the show.
“I’ve already had teachers reference [it],” he said. “I’ve said [to my whole team],guys, this is homework now because teachers are going to be referencing this.
“That TV show really shows just how important it is that we engage boys and men, otherwise we might lose them to isolation and, and the manosphere and violence, gender-based violence.”
He added: “We don’t know what healthy masculinity really looks like yet culturally, like we don’t see it much in our films and TV still. We don’t see it much in our books or in our music.”
Mr Adolphy knows firsthand the positive impact from teaching healthy masculinity.
“My approach is to go in there and I’m not a teacher, I’m not a member of staff. I’m one of you and I share my story”, he said.
“I’m modelling vulnerability”, he added. “I’m not there to tell them how to live their lives.”
He continued: “I’ve found with that approach, sometimes you see the bravado drop.
The educator sat down with Sir Keir and health secretary Wes Streeting last year where they discussed men’s health strategy, discussing in particular what can be done to bring boys and men into the conversation alongside the effort for girls and women.
“Because it’s going to benefit everyone”, he said, adding that the moment filled him with optimism. “I’m excited.”
