Roedean welcomed Soma Sara to speak about Everyone’s Invited and the importance of raising awareness of what she called the ‘societal endemic issue’ of rape culture and sexual harassment in education.

Having discussed this issue earlier in the year, it was decided that we should hold an event for the Sixth Form body to allow them to explore Soma’s work in greater detail. We were joined by students and staff from Lancing College, Caterham School, and Christ’s Hospital to hear this excellent speaker, who is all the more impressive because she is only 23, just a few years older than the audience members.

The website was launched in June 2020, after Soma discovered through conversations that many of her peers at university had been through similar experiences. The movement gained traction from March 2021 as media attention arrive the issue grew, and thousands more submissions were received.

The common experience described by thousands of survivors led to a report carried out jointly by Ofsted and ISI, which highlighted that educational institutions across the UK had a responsibility to effect change in this field.

The audience engaged brilliantly with Soma’s presentation, which sparked a series of excellent questions to delve more deeply into this societal issue and her thoughts about how we should collectively respond.