Child protection drama in primary school – an effective educational approach?

“Hello, Craig”, a child protection drama, was targeted at five‐ and six‐year olds in 28 primary schools in England. It aimed to encourage pupils to develop strategies to deal with appropriate and inappropriate touch in a variety of social settings. It also enabled teachers to introduce the sensitive issue of personal safety in a safe and stimulating way. The evidence from this evaluation suggests that innovative drama can be an effective medium for communicating the issues surrounding child protection. The project resulted in an increase in the children’s knowledge and skills about appropriate/inappropriate touch in a variety of contexts. Follow‐up work with photographs indicated that children had retained many of the main messages from the drama and were able to model strategies in playground situations. Areas for further development include embedding the project further within personal, social and health education (PSHE) programmes and staff development for teachers in the field of child protection.