Working with schools
A trusted, long-term approach to personal safety education
Be Safe delivers personal safety education to schools in a calm, age-appropriate, and safeguarding-led manner.
Our programmes are designed to support student wellbeing by helping young people recognise risk, make better decisions under pressure, and prioritise disengagement and escape to safety. We do not teach fighting or promote fear-based messaging.
Delivery is adapted to the age group, setting, and needs of each school. Be Safe has delivered personal safety and awareness training within UK schools over a sustained period, including regular annual delivery as part of student wellbeing provision.
Programmes for schools
Escape to Gain Safety
Our flagship programme for students aged 13 to 18. Delivered to mixed or single-gender groups.
Escape to Gain Safety uses simple actions that work under real stress. The objective is always the same: create space, disengage, and escape to safety. The programme includes a small number of controlled physical simulations using pads, framed strictly as last-resort options to create a brief opportunity to disengage. These are not taught as fighting techniques.
The programme has been taught annually since 2019 at Downe House School as part of their mental health and wellbeing provision.
Knife Awareness and Decision Making
A structured talk focusing on awareness, choice, and decision-making in situations involving bladed weapons. Students learn what to look for, how situations escalate, the importance of choices made under pressure, and why avoidance and escape are always the priority.
This programme does not involve physical techniques. It is delivered as a talk or presentation.
Situational Awareness
A simple, colour-coded system for understanding levels of attention and risk. Helps students develop clear language around awareness and response, recognise changes in their environment, and know when to disengage or seek help.
Delivered as a talk or presentation. Suitable for secondary school settings.
Safe Choices and Stranger Awareness
Designed specifically for primary school children. Focuses on understanding safe and unsafe situations, stranger awareness without fear-based messaging, and making good choices about when to seek help.
Delivered in a calm, supportive manner using simple, age-appropriate language.
How delivery works
Session length and format can be adapted to suit your school's needs. Options include:
- Assemblies and year-group talks
- Half-day practical workshops
- Full-day programmes
- Term-based or annual recurring delivery
We work with schools to ensure delivery fits within timetables, wellbeing frameworks, and wider PSHE provision. Programmes can be delivered to individual year groups or across multiple year groups in a single visit.
At the start of each session, a brief safety overview is provided outlining expectations, participation boundaries, and the emphasis on disengagement and escape.
Safeguarding and compliance
All Be Safe programmes are delivered with safeguarding, wellbeing, and age-appropriateness at the centre.
Sessions are non-graphic, non-confrontational, calm and structured, and suitable for educational environments. The emphasis is always on awareness, choice, and escape rather than physical dominance or confrontation.
Where physical simulations are included, they are practised in a controlled environment using pads and are framed strictly as last-resort disruption methods to enable disengagement.
Enhanced DBS certification is held for all relevant delivery. Appropriate public liability insurance is in place, and risk assessments are undertaken prior to each session, adapted to the specific environment and group.
Programmes can be adjusted to suit SEND students and are delivered with sensitivity to individual needs and experiences.
What schools say
The team have been providing self-defence and awareness training at Downe House School since 2020. We believe that the tuition provided is crucial in this day and age, especially for young people. The sessions are engaging, practical, easy to understand, and delivered in a professional and friendly manner. We continue to bring them in regularly to teach across our year groups and would highly recommend them and the training they provide to other schools.
Head of Co-Curricular Activities, Downe House School, Berkshire
Independent girls' school
Programme delivered under Clive Elliott's Martial Arts Academies, now operating school-based personal safety programmes under the Be Safe banner.
Frequently asked questions
Is the training physical?
Escape to Gain Safety includes simple, controlled physical simulations designed to demonstrate how a brief disruption can create an opportunity to disengage and move to safety. Participants practise a small number of high-percentage actions using pads in a structured and supervised setting. These are not taught as fighting techniques, but as last-resort options to create space before immediately escaping. All physical elements are carefully supervised, controlled, and framed within a safeguarding-led environment.
Is the content age-appropriate?
Yes. All programmes are adapted to the age group and setting. Sessions are non-graphic, calm in tone, and delivered in a manner suitable for educational environments.
Is the training suitable for all abilities?
Yes. The programme does not rely on strength, size, or athletic ability. The focus is on awareness, positioning, decision-making, and creating a brief opportunity to disengage rather than physical dominance.
How long are sessions?
Session length can be adapted to suit assemblies, workshops, half-day programmes, or term-based delivery. We work with schools to ensure delivery fits within timetables and wellbeing frameworks.
Do you provide training for staff as well as students?
Yes. Be Safe offers adapted sessions for staff, including awareness, decision-making under pressure, and workplace personal safety principles.
How does this differ from martial arts training?
Be Safe is not a martial arts programme. It is a personal safety education programme focused on awareness, choice, disruption for escape, and disengagement. The emphasis is on what remains effective under stress in real-world situations, not competitive or combative training.
Work with us
If you would like to discuss how Be Safe programmes could support your students, please get in touch to explore suitable options for your school.
Contact us