One of the most common forms of violence against children in East Africa is physical violence perpetrated by school staff, but no interventions to reduce this violence have been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness. The Good School Toolkit, developed by Ugandan NGO Raising Voices, aims to reduce this and other violence against children in schools. In 2012, Raising Voices approached LSHTM for assistance to evaluate the impact of the Good School Toolkit in Ugandan primary schools.

From 2012-2015, we conducted the Good Schools Study, which included:

• a cluster randomised controlled trial in 42 Ugandan primary schools
• a qualitative study
• a process evaluation
• an economic evaluation

We showed that the Toolkit reduced past week physical violence from school staff to students by 42%, and improved students’ feelings of well being and connection to schools. The Toolkit is freely available from Raising Voices.