Best Practice

Adolescence and its implications for safeguarding work in secondary schools

Safeguarding Pupil wellbeing Behaviour Pastoral issues PSHE
The public debate about incel culture sparked by the drama Adolescence is vital, but in schools this is a challenging area with a range of issues that must be considered by safeguarding professionals, pastoral leads and RSHE teachers. Jo Perrin explains
Hard conversations: In this scene from Adolescence – the powerful Netflix drama about incel culture – father Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham), tries to come to terms with the arrest of his son Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) - Netflix

For several weeks now it has been hard to go even a few hours without something in the press focused on the hit show Adolescence.

The four-part Netflix series tells the story of 13-year-old Jamie Miller who is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school. The series tackles themes of incel culture, misogyny, and the treatment of women.

It is a fantastic piece of drama, but for schools it brings with it yet another societal expectation – that we know how to “solve” this issue in one fell swoop.

While the debate is important – vital even – we need to be realistic about the size of the challenge and understand what a “best practice” response might look like in a secondary school.

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