Netflix series Adolescence: Shropshire schools leader on the crime show everyone is talking about, including banning phones and Andrew Tate

Those are just some of the words that have been used to describe Adolescence, the new Stephen Graham drama on Netflix which lays bare the dangerous and potentially deadly consequences for children and families from exploitative content online.

The series tells the story of Jamie, a 13-year-old schoolboy, who stabs a girl to death after social media bullying and being exposed to misogynistic “manosphere” and “red pill” material.

It’s the show everybody is talking about, including mums, dads and even Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has backed a campaign to show it in schools.

Now a Shropshire education leader has had her say on:

* The danger of narratives demonising young men

* The uprising of Andrew Tate and how schools are dealing with kids being exposed to misinformation 

* How schools reacted in the wake of the shocking murders of three little girls in Southport

* Two key policy changes which could drastically help schools in the fight against toxic content 

* And the one thing about Adolescence which left her “disappointed”

Amy Chevin-Dooley is the executive director of education at the Marches Academy Trust, which includes Shrewsbury Academy in Sundorne, The Grove School in Market Drayton, Sir John Talbot’s School in Whitchurch, Idsall School in Shifnal, Woodlands School in Wem and The Marches School in Oswestry. It also has five primary schools - Tilstock Primary School near Whitchurch, Lower Heath Primary School near Whitchurch, Longlands Primary School in Market Drayton, Oakmeadow Primary School in Bayston Hill and Grange Primary School in Shrewsbury.

Amy is an ex-English teacher and former deputy head, as well as having experience as a behaviour manager. She is the trust’s safeguarding lead.

How serious is the problem of boys being exposed to dangerous content?

“It’s very prevalent and I would say to a degree that people can’t even comprehend,” Amy said. 

“The generation of children that are in education now have never lived without technology, and the soundbites that they get consume and exposure to misinformation or exploitative content on different social media platforms is impossible to even calculate.

“The Department of Education (DofE) is doing explorations of the impact of social media but it doesn’t even come close to understanding the amount that is consumed by young minds through everything that they access.

“Because of the way that misinformation is wrapped up as fact, I think the most difficult thing for young people to fathom is what is misinformation and what might be manipulative and exploitative. 

Is it manifesting itself in violence?

“What we see is that violence is rare. In fact I would struggle to name an occasion where misogyny has manifested in physical assault.

“But what we see far more of is precursory behaviour through language. 

“It is in the minority. It isn’t something we’re seeing in every single interaction with boys.  We see it more in subtleties of a comment that is made or in ignorance. For example, overlooking a girl in an interaction or excluding her from a conversation.” 

Are we at risk of demonising boys with dangerous narratives?

“If we’re not careful, what we’ll do even with conversations around this programme is villainise and demonise boys when actually, they also need to be part of the solution.

“That isn’t to completely overlook women and girls as victims in the majority of these situations. But it’s really important that we’re mindful of that in our interactions within schools. 

“Often, the reasons why people seek validation - it was evident within the show - is they don’t feel a sense of belonging, purpose or value, so they’ll seek that validation elsewhere.

“We ‘other’ a group and that becomes very dangerous.

“We don’t help ourselves in society where we polarise men, boys, women and girls.

“We’ve got a multi-layered narrative around boys at the minute that includes lots of potentially damaging language that’s used around 'toxic masculinity' and boys' disaffection.”

What are schools doing to try and tackle these issues? And how the Southport murders affected change…

“As a trust we responded to what happened over the summer (in Southport). That was an incident of violence against women and girls which became a catalyst for race riots.

“We delivered more assemblies and worked more with children and young people to create awareness, empower them to recognise warning signs and how to respond to make sure they’re not bystanders in such behaviour.”

Amy added that the trust has developed a four-tier system for dealing with students with concerning behaviour around misogyny. The tiers range from step one, in which the school lets parents know what’s going on, to step four, where the police may become involved.

Encouragingly, Amy says that only 13 per cent of children who are referred to step one are moved on to step two - which involves getting parents into the school and the child going through a workshop to address repeat behaviour. She added that only one case has escalated to step four so far within the Marches Academy Trust.

“It focuses on education as opposed to a purely punitive approach,” Amy said. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t a space for punitive responses where someone has knowingly engaged in something that is harmful to somebody else. It has proven incredibly effective.”

She added: “We’ve invested a lot of training in our staff to recognise those precursory behaviours, the language, the subtleties, the things that go unsaid. Recognising what is often dismissed by younger people as banter, which we know is often a gateway to potentially more damaging behaviour.

“For me, the solution to this - not with the expectation of 100 per cent results - is partnership working. We work with Early Help, Climb, Youth Justice Services, Detached Youth. 

“We’ve worked a lot with the West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (WMRASAC)  and their branches including Purple Leaf, which provides psycho-social education. They’ve come into our schools and done workshops to empower educators and children to be able to advocate for themselves and others.

“Most recently we were involved in a pilot with WMRASAC where they were delivering a safer streets programme focusing on violence against women and girls. 

“Often we find - as was the case in Adolescence - children are being exploited. So as much as they are a perpetrator, and their actions absolutely cannot be excused, they are also victims.

“We also have our Learning For Life framework, which focuses on early identification and early intervention so we can recognise precursory behaviour and help young people understand the wrongs of the world.

“IIn the current political climate, it can be difficult when you have to remain politically or contextually impartial to not impose any of your own thoughts or unconscious biases into circumstances, and help young people recognise it for themselves.”

The uprising of Andrew Tate… and how do we stop boys from feeling marginalised?

Tate is one of a number of influencers famed for misogynistic comments and behaviour, whose content is pushed by algorithms into the eyeballs of young men online.

Amy said: “When we look at somebody like Andrew Tate, he’s got a platform to be very explicit in his language and he’s been validated by some of the most powerful people in politics internationally.

“He preys on the division in society where boys are being marginalised through narratives that consciously or subconsciously villainise or demonise them. He creates an alternative reality where they prosper, at the expense of women and girls. We need to educate and support boys to know this isn't a necessary evil.

“However, if you look up the statistics in boys and their attainment and disaffection, they are more likely to be suspended from school than girls, and they are less likely to achieve well than girls. They’re less likely to enroll in university courses than girls.

"Unfortunately, what we are seeing within education is clearly something isn’t going right for boys. Why is that gap there? 

“We need to do something quite radical in education to ensure that every child has a sense of belonging within school so they don’t feel it necessary to find that sense of solace in a place far more damaging.

“We need to ensure children aren’t being exploited and that they’re able to empower themselves and have agency in their decisions.”

Banning phones in schools, post-Covid attitudes to education and who needs to be accountable?

“The DofE could have published a policy banning phones from schools,” Amy said. “They aren’t pushing hard enough for that.

“They are commissioning a report on the impact of social media. They released guidance in the last few years on what schools might choose to do.

“But without the backing of the government, that’s really hard to impose, and you end up policing something that is almost impossible to police. A disproportionate amount of time goes to enforcing something relatively unenforceable because the government hasn't given that backing. It isn’t enforceable other than by your own school rules.”

She added: “We’re in a world now where information is so much more readily available and so parents - rightly so - exercise their rights and understand their rights far more.

“Historically, education was viewed through a lens of ‘you are fortunate to have it’.  Post-Covid, people don’t see the same value in education because the value was diminished for a period of time. 

“Just enforcing rules from voluntary guidance leaves you quite open.

“I think how algorithms are created, unfortunately even adults can’t be that discerning. For whatever reasons it might be difficult for even adults to know what is fact and what is exploitative.

“Everybody has to take accountability for what they are able to control. Social media and technology companies, the government, all have to take accountability.

“At the minute, other than lobbying and campaigning and being involved in the right conversations wherever possible, we still have to take ownership and accountability of what we can do in education. 

“Schools are expected to do more on less. The funding for education in real terms is depleting. Buildings also take a lot more money to run because of living costs and energy costs.

“Teachers who historically were there to educate children in specific subjects now wear multiple hats. The reality is, schools are the last hope for many children, which is terrible to say in their formative years.

“We’re having to find solutions. We’re having to wear the hats of social workers, youth workers, counsellors, parent support - at times financing uniforms and food. Trying to give children the best start to life.

“So much could be changed by policy and governmental decisions.

Should we follow the lead of Australia and other nations, banning social media access to children under 16?

“I absolutely agree with it,” Amy said. “The issue is how they regulate that.

“Children are savvy, far more than most adults. We have to make sure that if we’re going to impose something like that we ensure that it’s the lived reality. Otherwise, what impact will it have?”

Was the chaotic nature of the school in Adolescence, and the attitude of the teachers and staff, a fair reflection of reality?

“I thought it was disappointing,” Amy said.

“Stephen Graham, who I think is phenomenal, had two things that he said to the writer that had to be the case - 1) that it was a one-shot series and 2) that the parents weren't demonised.

“With that in mind, I was disappointed that the same consideration wasn’t given to all parties involved.

“By and large the police, despite clumsiness at points, were really humanised.

“It was a bit of a lazy stereotype that was used. Don’t get me wrong, in education up and down the country there are some great examples and some poorer examples.

“I was disappointed that more consideration wasn’t given to how insensitive portrayals could impact more widely on public perceptions of education. I think it only seeks to perpetuate some belief within society about the flaws of education and the approaches of educators.

“There seemed to be a lack of persistence or resilience (in the school staff). But what I see in education every day in our schools is educators going above and beyond, often to the detriment of their own health, their own families, to try and create a better tomorrow for the children in their charge.

“We’ve had some phenomenal things happen for children as a result of tireless care, attention and love that professionals across our trust afford them in the worst circumstances.”

Would you recommend that parents and children watch Adolescence?

“I’m a parent myself. It’s hard-hitting. I think the way that it’s been filmed adds to that.

“Apart from the murder, much of the messaging is very subtle. It absolutely highlights the impact of social media and other layers of society on young minds and boys' development, but what those layers may be is not always obvious. Given Graham's desire for the parents not to be demonised, one may interpret his apology in the closing scenes to be an admission of culpability, but it's one of parental guilt, of not being able to protect his child from those factors we don't even know exist... and that's the scary reality. 

“Would I recommend it as a great piece of television? Absolutely, to stimulate thought.

“I don’t think I would recommend it as a learning tool, but one that prompts curiosity and vigilance.”