On Wednesday, Hayley along with her peers at Merici College in Braddon gathered in the school hall, and with their teachers, learnt some basic skills to stand up for themselves.

The year 10 student hopes the new program aimed at empowering young women and children through self-defence training will give her even more confidence she may need if she was ever in a situation where she needed to defend herself.

"I think it's so important for young girls and women to learn self-defence," Hayley said.

"I think it's an important skill that would help people be more confident, and for people to not only help themselves but the community as well if a situation was to come up."

As part of national child safety week, the college partnered with Jasiri Australia, a youth-led organisation who aims to equip young women with skills and to ultimately end violence. The organisation will run self-defence classes for the students.

"So far we've learnt self-defence moves like kicking and elbow strikes and stuff like that for us to use if we're ever being attacked," she said.

"I think this program is going to help me build my confidence and for me to have the knowledge to know that if I am in a situation, I'll be able to help myself, I feel really good.

"It's helping me and my peers develop our strength, knowledge and resilience against issues we might face."

Acting principal Philip Coe said the program would train all students, from years 7 to 12, in self-defence across stages. About 700 students will be trained.

"Our students, they're moving into a world where they've got to make choices and choices about themselves, about consent, about violence and although they're learning about self-defence at the moment this really is about violence prevention, giving them strategies for them to remove themselves from situations and to identify risk and to be safer," Mr Coe said.

"I hope it helps with the girls' self-esteem, I hope it helps with their resilience, I hope they feel empowered that they actually do have the strategies to make decisions."

Jasiri co-founder Ashleigh Streeter-Jones said the program was the largest of its kind in the country.

"Given the statistics young women in our country face, it’s fantastic partnering with a local school that is committed to supporting their students overall wellbeing," Ms Streeter-Jones said.