This toolkit guides schools through a step-by-step process to prevent violence against children and build safer, more respectful learning environments. Violence against children in Ugandan schools fell by 42% after schools adopted this process over a period of 18 months, a randomised controlled trial found.
The Good School Toolkit is a whole-school process for preventing violence against children. Developed by Raising Voices in Uganda, it works by changing a school's operational culture through four entry points: teacher-student relationships, peer-to-peer relationships, student and teacher relationships with the school, and parent and community involvement in school governance.
The Toolkit takes schools through six steps, from building Good School Committees and gathering baseline information, through to reflecting on teaching practices, discipline, and the learning environment, and finally consolidating changes under school leadership. It includes cartoon booklets and posters that introduce key concepts in an accessible way, including gender fairness, positive discipline, and mental health.
Originally developed for primary schools and published in 2011 after four years of iterative work with six Ugandan primary schools, the Toolkit is now in its third edition. A secondary school adaptation was published in 2020, and a further version, Good School Toolkit Agile, was finalised and published in 2025 for wider-scale use.
The Toolkit has been rigorously evaluated, including through a randomised controlled trial, and is now used at scale across Uganda with government backing.
This resource is from Raising Voices, an organisation working across Uganda and beyond to prevent violence against women and children through community-based approaches, including the SASA! approach for preventing violence against women and the Good School Toolkit for preventing violence against children in schools.
Key messages
- The Good School Toolkit is a whole school change approach that seeks to transform the echo system of the school, built around six steps covering teacher-student relationships, discipline, learning environment and school administration.
- In a randomised controlled trial, the Good School Study, found the Toolkit reduced children's risk of physical violence from school staff by 42% over 18 months.
- The first iteration was developed for Ugandan primary schools in 2011. The Toolkit is now used in over 2,000 primary schools and 500 secondary schools supported directly by Raising Voices and partners, and some resources (posters and cartoon booklets) have been distributed by the Government of Uganda to over 5,000 schools nationwide.
- The Toolkit is supported by illustrated booklets and posters on topics including violence, power, corporal punishment, positive discipline, gender fairness and mental health.
