Over the last 6 weeks, our Year 12 and 13 girls have been very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to take part in Personal Safety sessions during their Wednesday afternoon Enrichment Programme.  These sessions have been not only been offered free of charge but also through the generosity of both Ben Richardson and Jordan Squires, of Can Do Martial Arts Abingdon, who have given up their own time to do so.  We are very grateful to them both. Ben Richardson is an expert in the field of Karate, having competed in this discipline at both National and World level, and has also been a coach for 14 years professionally teaching in primary and secondary schools; he runs Abingdon’s only full-time martial arts dojo and fitness centre.

The aim of the sessions has been to give the students a range of strategies that could be used should they ever find themselves in a situation where they come under threat. They have most importantly been taught the awareness needed to avoid putting themselves in a potentially threatening situation in the first place. This is particularly relevant as mobile phones are the focus of attention for many young people, even when they are walking along the street. The students were also taught some basic, but highly effective, defensive and evasive manoeuvres that they could use, should they find themselves under attack.

One of our Year 12 students summed up the experience brilliantly:

During our enrichment time a very kind company called Can Do martial Arts gave us a very helpful self-protection course in which we learnt how to protect our personal space. First, we were taught voice command in which we learnt to verbalise that we felt threatened. Next, we practised hammer punches, palm punches and elbow punches to move an attacker out of our personal space if they enter it; it was fun being able to hit our peer! But the best part of the course was learning how to get an attacker off you if they were sat on you. The first demonstration caused a few laughs but it’s a really worthwhile skill to learn. In a real encounter it could save your life.  I would recommend the course to anyone.

Thank you to Can Do Martial Arts, who offer free personal safety training to women of all ages.