Who we are

Split Banana began in 2018 in secondary school classrooms, where we saw a gap between what young people were taught in sex education and what they actually needed to navigate relationships in real life.

Consent was often reduced to a legal definition, key topics were avoided and young people were left without space to ask honest questions or make sense of their experiences.

So we started asking what great sex-ed could look like.

We’re Matilda and Anna, co-founders of Split Banana.

Where we started

Listening to young people

We worked directly with students to understand what they needed from RSE - what felt confusing, what felt missing and what would actually help them to have safe and ho.

We also ran ‘What I Wish I’d Known’ workshops with adults whose voices are often left out, including LGBTQIA+ communities, people of colour and disabled people. These conversations helped us understand what RSE could look like when it is truly inclusive and reflects the realities of everyone’s lives.

How we work now

Today, Split Banana works across schools, training and cultural projects, supporting better conversations about sex, relationships and identity. We’ve worked with thousands of young people, trained educators and senior leaders and partnered with organisations including the BBC, Ice and Fire Theatre and The Eve Appeal.

Our facilitators - with backgrounds in public health, youth work, education, activism and teaching - bring this work into schools and training.

We are supported by our Youth Advisory Group and wider advisors, who help keep our work grounded in young people’s realities.

We are also proud to be a four-day week, living wage employer, part of a wider network working to prevent gender-based violence and proud to collaborate with organisations and schools committed to helping young people build safe, joyful relationships.

We’re a small team doing big work

Anna Alexander (she/her)
Learning and Engagement Director

Anna is an educator and facilitator with nearly a decade of experience supporting young people through education and prevention work. A qualified Religious Studies teacher, she has worked as an RSE lead in a secondary school, as well as a teaching assistant and support worker. She has received the Shackleton Leadership Award and now leads SB's fundraising and marketing strategy, helping to shape the organisation's strategic direction and long-term sustainability.

Our Team

Matilda Lawrence-Jubb (she/her)
Development Director

Matilda leads on partnerships, governance, ops and HR. Her background is in programme production and creative events management. Before SB, she worked as a Service Designer at Snook.

Hajer Adrwish (she/her),
Programme Coordinator

Hajer first joined SB in 2022 as a Workshop Facilitator and has been delivering RSE since 2017 for various organisations. She holds a master’s degree in Public Health and is passionate about supporting Muslim communities to access RSE that meets their needs.

Tasha Mansley (she/her),
Training Lead

Tasha joined SB in 2021 as a Workshop Facilitator, and has grown from curriculum design and facilitation, to leading on training. Outside SB, she runs participatory youth group sessions and creative facilitation training. She has an MA in Education from UCL where she specialised in gender, sexuality and feminist pedagogies.

Sophie Bell (she/her),
Social Media Coordinator

I’m Sophie, Social Media Coordinator at Split Banana. I’m passionate about human rights, community building, and, of course, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice. My commitment to RSE deepened during my time volunteering with Sexpression, and further through my work in advocacy and humanitarian digital communications at the International Planned Parenthood Federation. At Split Banana, I focus on communicating how we address gaps in RSE and create more inclusive, honest, and accessible conversations for young people. I create hopeful, values-driven content that amplifies the impact of our work in classrooms, where we make the biggest difference!

Our Workshop Facilitators

Our Workshop Facilitators are more than educators; they are specialists drawn from public health, youth work, domestic violence prevention and intimacy coordination. By weaving multidisciplinary expertise with lived experience, they cultivate brave, non-judgemental spaces in every classroom.

Our Youth Advisory Group

Our Youth Advisory Group is made up of 12 young people aged 18-25 who co-design our curriculum to ensure our content is always hitting the mark with current trends, digital realities and youth culture.

Our Advisory Group

Our Advisory Group is a strategic group of experts across education, fundraising and activism who keep us accountable to our mission and our community.

  • Roann is a mindset, strategy and systems coach. Roann brings a wealth of start-up experience to Split Banana. He also has a keen interest in mental health.

  • Rhea is a Strategic Programme Officer at the Camden Community Wealth Fund and previously worked at The Social Change Nest and UnLtd. She is also an ambassador for LGBTQ+ charity for young people, Just Like Us, and a trustee at Hubbub.

  • Prishita is an author, editor, campaigner and workshop facilitator. They educate, mobilise and help members of their communities feel seen and validated. Previously, they were Storytelling Lead at Stonewall and Campaigns Manager at Greenpeace.

  • Joshua is a qualified teacher and experienced middle manager at Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College. He is an active advocate for post-16 RSE and is on the Education and Learning Strategic Board at Brighton and Hove City Council.

  • Inés is head of Community Knowledge and Data at Camden Giving, a fund to support businesses and charities in Camden achieve their local missions. She has expertise in impact and evaluation and previously worked as Senior Evaluation and Monitoring Manager at The Education Endowment Fund.

  • Ammaarah is an consultant and educator specialising in reproductive rights. She is currently working as Advice Officer at Royal College of Art Students Union and has previously worked for Brook, Split Banana and the Ubele Initiative.