Report Finds Rape Culture in 1,600 Primary Schools

An investigation has uncovered the presence of rape culture in over 1,600 primary schools across the UK and Ireland. According to the Everyone’s Invited platform, 1,664 schools have been named where pupils between the ages of five and 11 have anonymously shared accounts of experiencing sexual harassment, groping, inappropriate physical contact, and even forced penetration while in primary school.

The report also found that nearly half of children under the age of seven exhibit misogynistic behavior, suggesting that harmful gender norms and sexist attitudes take root from an early age, including in nursery settings. Additionally, more than 60 percent of teachers reported that children younger than nine had been exposed to pornography.

‘Smashed my head against sink’

Several testimonies from pupils are included in the report.

One read: “When I was five, another five-year-old boy at primary school started calling me beautiful and sexy (which I didn’t even know what it meant at the time).

“One day, he followed me into the toilets and smashed my head against the sink.

“I told my mum, and the school phoned her to tell her we were ‘just playing’ and said they would keep an eye on him.

“One day, he called me sexy then pushed me into the toilets again and tried to push my head down a toilet while grabbing me.

“I told a teacher after and they put me and the boy in the same room together. A teacher tried to downplay it, and say it wasn’t that bad (basically gaslighting a six-year-old for the sake of keeping their reputation).

“The boy wasn’t expelled. I left school, and learnt that he did it to another girl after I had left.”

Another read: “When I was 10, a boy told me one of the boys was going to lick my vagina. A boy said they would pay another boy £20 to rape me. I didn’t know what rape meant.

“I didn’t tell anyone. One of the boys in my year told their mum, who told mine. I went in for a meeting with the headteacher. She told me, ‘As women, we have to accept what men say to us’.”

The charity, which is dedicated to eradicating rape culture, has called for relationship and sex education to begin in nursery or reception.

‘Challenging and uncomfortable’
Everyone’s Invited, founded in June 2020 by Soma Sara, a former private school student and sex abuse survivor, has previously highlighted the issue of sexual abuse in schools and colleges.

The charity’s report noted that primary school teachers often face “challenging and uncomfortable situations” in the classroom but found that 80 percent of those surveyed felt unprepared to address these matters.

It further stated, “Many teachers are only trained to meet the legal minimum requirements for safeguarding, leaving them unprepared to handle disclosures of sexual violence.”

A recent report from the National Police Chiefs’ Council revealed a 400 percent increase in child sexual abuse and exploitation from 2013 to 2024.

The report also noted that more than half of the alleged perpetrators in cases of sexual violence were children themselves.